As for heating in winter… take a friend and snuggle up. Use you’re imagination, and I’m sure it’s not hard to create some heat.

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Seems to me the thing to do is bury them in a low hill, with the entrance side exposed. This will also help insulate the tubes, for better cooling in summer, heating in winter. It is an ancient construction technique.

First, you lay down a foundation of earth about 10cm high (to keep groundwater from getting into the pipes, if there is heavy rain and puddles).

Then you put down several of these pipes … bam-bam-bam – maybe 3-5 of them.

Then, fill dirt on top of and between them, with about 20cm of dirt on top.

Leave about 20 CM of the front ends of the pipes exposed (kind of ‘jutting out’ from your little artificial hill). Landscape it all, out, plant grass and so forth, and you’re all set.

INTERIOR UGLINESS?

Well, I wouldn’t have a big party inside one of them, but if you are worried about sound reverberation and appearance, some decorative textiles on one of the upper 1/4ths of the curved interior surface should do nicely. A tapestry of sorts. It could even be decorative carpeting (go see some of the oddly patterned carpet at hardware/carpet stores), as long as it has an interesting and warm appearance. Viola: Instant soft-to-the-touch mural.

TRANSPORTATION COSTS/IMPACT?

Most types of construction require a number of semi-tractor trailers coming in: Concrete pourers, skids of roofing material, truckloads of wood, etc, etc. With this, almost everything arrives on one truck. From what I’ve observed on the highway, it seems you could bring in 4 of them at a time.

NOT ROOMY ENOUGH?

Ok, so maybe its not for you. So move on, if that’s your beef. A lot of people like the idea of a whimsical little snug room with tasteful decor.

geez guys — have you ever been in a concrete tube? they are solid, and the thickness would not allow it to get “HOT” in summer… they stay cool! and in winter i bet they stay warm! i used to skateboard in tubes and always thought how great they’d be for little “rooms”… they’re nice and sound-proof too.

i could see a short tube stacked vertically with a doorway cut out as a showering unit, with a solar system in the top section. park one nearby to offer showering accomodations maybe.

as far as beauty, heck, if you don’t like the look of concrete as it is (which ages beautifully IMO), then paint them. or tile them, or grow ivy along the side.. look on the bright side and envision beauty instead of saying “eeew.”

mmm, i’d like mine to have a custom stained glass window on one end, heck, on both ends — with the entrance being two half circle doors. i picture some dark cobalt blue glass… like the bases of those dark blue water bottles… that’d be nice , sorta like a kaliedescope!

add a nice round concrete or redwood deck out front that looks like a necco wafer (a pale tinted concrete maybe?) and put some colorful bauer oil jars on that…. a snacky lookin adirondack chair or someting.. dude.. stylin…

it’d be great for the beach. better than a tent that will blow in the wind, ya know?

okay, how about adding an awning for shade if you’re worried about too much heat. that’d would be cool too, some canvas/steel pipe structure, something simple and adustable.

i’d like a set of these concrete tubes — bedroom, breakfast room, party tube.. !

so many people just want to put down a wonderful, inventive idea… you guys are dorks, i swear! this is such an awesome idea!

rolling downhill? please. just chock it if you’re so worried about it moving, like we did when he skated. those things are so heavy they’re practically impossible to move.

COFFINS? what? did you obsess over kill bill V2? dang, sounds like a personal problem to me. unless you’re mega-mega-fat and dumpy i doubt you’d feel like you were in a coffin with such a spacious tube.

claustrophobic? for a few nights? didn’t you ever go camping in a PUP tent? jeez. you all sound so friggin’ spoiled! the tube looks like it has plenty of room! what, you need to fly around the sleeping space like a bat or something? get real!

so yeah, i think it’s very fromage too.. whatever that means! sure, make it slightly bigger, why not, but they seem all right to me. i’d park myself in one pronto with my honey, they look very cozy and safe.

i applaud loudly for mr. strauss’s inventive idea… and i hope to see these things around lakes and shores and the deserts of my country.

GO TUBES!

i stayed there 3 times and ( spring 2005 in linz and july and oktober 2006 in ottensheim ) to be honest.
visite it and then talk again.
its a more than a amazing feeling to be welcome, to feel secure and still be completely indipendent,….at the same time.

think or knit theories about as much as you like ………..but i tell you its amazing !!!!!!!!

Bet you could roll them with a couple of large sticks, though, wouldn’t that be fun for the occupant?

very funny that so many people come up with strange thoughts on a new idea and even post such things witch are

claustrophobic: with its double bed its as big as what they sell as family tents ……. the
acoustic inside is much brighter then in any romantic wooden hut with laura
ashley curtains.

energy friendly: the tubes are very cheap serial product, produced at every second concrete
factory and we could have got the same standard tube from 3 different
companies within 40 kilometers.
the interior is 80 % less material as one of the stupid and ugly hotel-shags
for wannabe business travelers or lets fly to Hawaii for the weekend and
check out organic toilets there guys…
efficiency we use, in europe still existing public structures, like real public toilets
public showers in nearby public pools ……..to make it a hotel.

heat: 9,5 tons don’t heat up to be uncomfortable as most people might know not
even in summers like this one when we have between 33 °and 39 ° C