Academy Magic Series is a popular fantasy book series written by a renowned author. The series revolves around a protagonist who discovers their hidden magical abilities and is admitted into a prestigious magic academy. Throughout the books, the protagonist undergoes various trials and adventures as they navigate the world of magic and try to master their newfound powers. They encounter friends and foes, unravel secrets, and face challenges that test their strength and determination. The academy itself is a hub of magical learning, with skilled teachers and a vast library of knowledge. The protagonist attends classes, learns new spells, and practices different magical techniques.
Green Building: Sustainable Prefab Home
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Innovations in green building
Have presented us with several interesting ways of owning a sustainable home over the past few years, but now these qualities are available in a prefab earth-shelter package. Unlike traditional houses, they blend in with the surrounding landscape, and harness the passive heating and cooling properties of the Earth. Better than a green roof – you’ll have a greenhouse, and you can assemble the entire thing yourself – in days!
The energy-efficient and eco-friendly technology used in these Green Magic Homes makes it perfectly suited to any type of terrain and climate. Desert, mountains, forest, plains, or coast… any lot is perfect. Prefabricated vaulted panels made from fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) forms the structure and are so easy to put together that 3 people can build a 2 bedroom house in a week. They go together with screws and glue. And when you’re finished, you have a solid, waterproof home with sleek and modern rooms.
Green Magic Farmhouse
Combining both new and ancient techniques puts your home under the garden – not beside it. Now, that’s green building. And if you design your earth layer right, you can literally live in a farm house. Using earth as a building material dates back to when man graduated from cave dwelling. But instead of making mud and applying it like plaster as in adobe or cob building, these homes take advantage of geotextile soil retention, allowing a thick insulation layer. Once the plantings on the roof and walls develop good root systems, they hold the soil firmly – just as grasses and wildflowers do on a hillside in Nature.
Being below the surface like this, your Green Magic home withstands extreme weather like hurricanes and earthquakes. Your cost of home maintenance will be vastly lower over time too because you won’t need to replace the roofing every 10-20 years, paint or repair siding, or do many of the other things traditional houses demand. Not only that, your home is custom manufactured to your specifications, and less expensive than conventional new construction.
The average cost to build a 2,000 square foot home in the US is about $200 per square foot for basic, low-end finishes. The lot, landscaping and decorating are extra. If you want green building materials and technologies, you’re looking at a significant cost increase. But the largest Green Magic model offers 1,917 square feet, 4 bedrooms and 4 baths at about $42 per square foot delivered. Smaller models run about $34 per square foot. Average model prices in 2015 were from under $16,000 to just over $66,000.
That’s not a finished home. You still need a lot and a slab to build on, along with plumbing, wiring, the insulating soil layer, fixtures, decorating, and landscaping. Still, since you’re not paying all those skilled tradesmen required to build the shell of your house – your savings are substantial. And if you take advantage of solar energy, your monthly cost of living savings will be sizable too.
These exciting new green building homes are being built in Georgia, Tennessee, Nova Scotia, the UK, Italy, Spain, Ecuador, and beyond. They’re available all over the world. Options start at 500 square feet, and you can add special features and more rooms. It’s also easy to build an addition later on because they’re modular.
Learn more and check out all the basic models on the Green Magic Homes website.
Images courtesy of Green Magic Homes.
Building your own home needn’t cost you a fortune
The author JRR Tolkien is not often cited in connection with property websites. But back in 1937, in the opening lines of The Hobbit, he described Bag End, the home of the book’s hero, Bilbo Baggins: “In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit.” And nowadays, it seems, it’s easier than ever to go down in the world.
While burrowing might seem more appropriate for hibernating animals than for humans at this time of year, there are many advantages to underground homes. As well as maximising space in small areas and mimimising visual impact on the environment, these are energy efficient. Natural earth insulation ensures that properties are warm in the winter and cool in the summer. If you supplement this with solar panels, your home could be well on the way to being energy self-sufficient.
There are a range of existing properties around to inspire you. Malator, for instance, is an earth house overlooking St Brides Bay in Wales. With its turf roof and round doorway, it is unsurprisingly known locally as the Tellytubby house. Inside, what is essentially a single room is divided up by prefabricated coloured pods. The floor-to-ceiling windows ensure that the rooms are filled with light – and have magnificent views of the surrounding Pembrokeshire coastline. Bespoke architecture like this doesn’t come cheap, though: the build cost was approximately £1 million.
(http://ideasgn.com/architecture/house-in-wales-future-systems/)
Villa Vals, meanwhile, is a holiday retreat dug in to the alpine slopes of Switzerland. Its design is reminiscent of a parabolic dish, resting against the hillside. Local materials were used both to ensure harmony with its natural surroundings and to be in keeping with the area’s building traditions. The concrete interior, though, lends an unmistakably contemporary feel. If you fancy experiencing earth dwelling, you can rent this property, from £700 (€950) for a weekend (http://villavals.ch/).
Over on the Greek island of Antiparos, the long stone walls of Aloni allow this home to nestle between two slopes and to maintain the continuity of the landscape. The living spaces are divided by courtyards, one of which features a striking slope planted with bushes. It’s as if the earth is coming to reclaim the space. Christies Real Estate are currently selling this for £1.4 million (www.christiesrealestate.com/eng/sales/detail/170-l-673-1305090401050427/aloni-antiparos-cities-in-cyclades-cy-84007).
Digging down is not confined to residential dwellings, either. Starchitect Zaha Hadid recently completed a clifftop museum for the climber Raymond Messner on the summit of Mount Kronplatz in South Tyrol. With its curved, glass-reinforced concrete, it looks like an ice shard has pierced the rock, and now protrudes majestically from each side. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this sci-fi structure featuring in a future Bond film. (www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/messner-mountain-museum-corones/
If properties such as these have you reaching for your spade, there’s help at hand. Miami-based Green Magic Homes (www.greenmagichomes.com) has given traditional earth-sheltered construction a 21st-century twist. Their arched structures, made of prefabricated, fibre-reinforced polymer, come in modular components, offering numerous possibilities to customise the design of your home. There are even sand-covered options for desert climes. Or combine eco living with Good Life-style sustainability, by planting your own fruit and vegetables on the roof. Prices start at £10,000 ($15,000) for a 400 sq. ft., one-bedroomed ‘Waikiki’ studio; a four-bedroom ‘Mediterraneo’ house, meanwhile, which covers 1,900 sq. ft., will cost in the region of £45,000 ($66,500), depending on individual specifications. To which, of course, you must add the cost of the land.
A word of warning, though – check with your neighbours before building your very own hobbit-hole. “And,” as Tolkien observed, “that means comfort”.
1. Employ the right architect. Underground buildings present unique challenges: seek expert advice. Useful websites include: aselfbuild.co.uk and earthshelter.sustainablesources.com
2. Contact the relevant planning department (in the UK, planningportal.gov.uk) and investigate rules for building underground, in terms of structural supports, waterproofing, ventilation, draining and so forth.
3. Commission a thorough survey to determine factors such as ground water levels and slope stability. As well as to confirm that there is nothing running through your proposed site: moving gas pipes, electricity cables or sewage outlays could send your budget soaring.
4. Ensure that the orientation of the building maximises light through south-facing windows.
5. Don’t skimp on moisture control and ventilation systems: these are crucial, to control indoor air quality and humidity. The Association for Environment Conscious Building (aecb.net) gives advice on this and other factors.
Stuart was the Telegraph's Property Editor for five years, where he transformed their online platforms. Now he is an editor, writer and digital strategist for Everything Overseas. He specialises in places, prices and properties in the world of real estate. He is also a director of Everything Overseas, overseeing the direction of the channel.
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Real-life 'Hobbit houses' look like they're straight out of Lord of the Rings
Hobbit-style homes are being built which allow you to live UNDER your garden, flowers and trees - and they take just three days to put up.
The cute under-earth homes are more Middle Earth , with their rounded windows peering out from under the turf.
The 100 per cent eco-friendly properties are available from Green Magic Homes and include arable houses - covered in fruit and vegetables for food - bio-climated houses which save energy and homes for desert areas, covered with sand, rocks and cactus.
A one-bedroom cabin may take three days to assemble and seal between three people, according to Green Magic Homes.
Read more:
The company explains that the homes are, "clean architecture, free from moisture and filtrations [with] smooth surfaces, washable walls, rounded corners, high strength, naturally illuminated, large spaces and endless design possibilities, whose mission is to go beyond all your expectations.
Selection: The properties include Green Homes, Desert Homes, Farming Homes and Snow Homes (Image: Green Magic Homes)
Space: The small spaces are fully waterproof and offer unique eco-friendly living (Image: Green Magic Homes)
Desert: Engineering ensures freshness inside, reducing up to 20°C and offering large energy savings (Image: Green Magic Homes)
Clean: The properties are free from moisture and filtrations, with smooth surfaces, washable walls and rounded corners (Image: Green Magic Homes)
They describes the properties as "a unique synthesis of design that uses cutting edge materials, to produce as a result a sustainable technology, which uses the oldest building material of all, the living earth."
Green Magic Homes actually use prefabricated capabilities to form the houses, using reinforced polymer.
Modular: The parts are able to be packed in containers and shipped across the world (Image: Green Magic Homes)
Design: Inside, the modern living space is utilised to its full extent with stylish ideas (Image: Green Magic Homes)
Nature: The homes use revolutionary technology for spaces covered with earth and natural gardens (Image: Green Magic Homes)
Living: They are made with high strength materials, naturally illuminated, with large spaces and endless design possibilities (Image: Green Magic Homes)
Of the building process, they explain: "The magic of the 'green' and the effect of heat insulation, is provide by the earth side embankments with geo-textile, complimented with a vegetable layer on top.
"Both embankments and top layer are wrapped in a geo-textile weft open and covered entirely with grass or other vegetation that stabilizes the Earth in the long term by the action of the rooting."
Shell: The building process cutting edge materials to produce sustainable technology (Image: Green Magic Homes)
Land: The technology is designed to adapt to any type of topography, either flat, with moderate land slopes or steep slopes (Image: Green Magic Homes)
Easy: Each component has perforated flaps to screw and seal each other, anchoring them to the foundation (Image: Green Magic Homes)
New: Achieving adequate ventilation and adequate water-proofing in this type of construction has never been easy with traditional methods (Image: Green Magic Homes)
Based in Florida, the manufacture of the pieces is done in Cancun, Mexico, and then shipped across the world.
Small designs are more expensive per sq ft than bigger designs , with the smallest prototype, Martinica, costing around £15,973 for 693.19 sq ft.
Cover: Adobe, cob, rammed earth, and earth-sheltered construction are being used as an alternative to more mainstream types of building (Image: Green Magic Homes)
Speedy: A 100 square metre house takes 10 days to manufacture (Image: Green Magic Homes)Special: The system is designed and calculated structurally by engineers using the latest spreadsheet and simulation software (Image: Green Magic Homes)
Wind proofing: The rounded shapes and low height mean the house becomes part of the surrounding terrain (Image: Green Magic Homes)
The 1,917 sq ft Mediterraneo is around £44,288.
Flat pack 'Hobbit hole' home can be yours from only €13,700
Are you struggling to cobble together the money for a deposit so that you can finally buy a place of your own?
We may have the perfect solution for you.
A company called Green Magic Homes are manufacturing 'Hobbit Holes' that can be erected in a matter of days.
If you're a fan of Lord of the Rings there's the added bonus of being able to pretend that you live in middle earth. as you go about your daily chores.
A garage 'module' can be added Credit: Green magic Homes website
The quirky dwellings are made to order and can be as little or as large as the buyer specifies.
The smallest one-bedroom pods measure 400 square foot and take three days to assemble.
Like Frodo’s house, the cute structures fit seamlessly into the landscape.
They can be covered with grass, turf or soil to enable them to fully blend into nature.
For those who want more space, an extra 'module' can be added.
The smallest one-bedroom pods measure 400 square foot and take three days to assemble. Credit: Green Magic Homes website
The one-bedroom pods are open plan and contain a master bedroom, en suite and a lounge/kitchen/diner.
They cost $14,998 (€13,756).
If you want something more upmarket there’s a 1,917 square foot option.
The mansion version of the hobbit hole boasts four-bedrooms, four-bathrooms and a separate lounge, kitchen and dining room.
It costs $66,596 (€61,073).
The protagonist attends classes, learns new spells, and practices different magical techniques. They also participate in tournaments and competitions, which showcases their progress and skills. As the series progresses, the protagonist becomes entangled in a larger conflict or mystery that threatens not only the magic academy but also the entire magical world.
Alongside their friends, they must uncover the truth and stop the forces of evil from unleashing chaos and destruction. The Academy Magic Series captures the essence of a classic coming-of-age tale, with elements of fantasy and adventure. It delves into themes of friendship, loyalty, self-discovery, and the importance of harnessing one's inner power responsibly. The books are filled with magic, action, and suspense, keeping readers engaged and eager to know what happens next. The series has garnered a dedicated fanbase globally, with readers of all ages being captivated by the enchanting world and the relatable characters. It has received critical acclaim for its imaginative storytelling, well-developed characters, and intricate plotlines. Overall, the Academy Magic Series is a must-read for fans of fantasy and magic. It offers an immersive and thrilling experience, transporting readers into a world where anything is possible with a touch of magic..
Reviews for "The Academy Magic Seriea: A Tale of Love and Betrayal"
1. Lisa - 2 out of 5 stars - The "Academy Magic" series was a huge disappointment for me. I found the plot to be predictable and lacking any depth. The characters were one-dimensional and unrelatable, making it hard for me to care about what happened to them. Additionally, the writing style was unimpressive, with cliched dialogue and a lack of descriptive language. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this series to anyone looking for a captivating and well-written fantasy story.
2. David - 2 out of 5 stars - I had high hopes for the "Academy Magic" series, but unfortunately, it fell short for me. The world-building felt underdeveloped, leaving me with a lack of understanding about the setting and its magical elements. The pacing was also inconsistent, with moments of intense action followed by stretches of dullness. Moreover, the romance aspect of the story felt forced and unnatural, not adding anything meaningful to the plot. Overall, I found the series to be forgettable and wouldn't recommend it to fellow fantasy enthusiasts.
3. Sarah - 1 out of 5 stars - I honestly couldn't even finish the first book in the "Academy Magic" series. The writing was incredibly juvenile, with shallow characters and a plot that lacked any substance. The dialogue felt forced and unrealistic, making it hard for me to connect with the story. Additionally, the pacing was all over the place, making it a chore to continue reading. I have no intentions of giving this series another chance, as it simply didn't meet my expectations for a good fantasy novel.
4. Michael - 2 out of 5 stars - As a fan of magic-themed books, I was excited to start the "Academy Magic" series. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a major letdown for me. The protagonist was unlikable and lacked any growth throughout the series. The plot was predictable and unoriginal, making it hard to stay engaged. The world-building was also lacking, providing little explanation or depth to the magical elements introduced. Overall, this series failed to captivate me and I found it to be a forgettable addition to the genre.