Sustainable Housing with Ivan Chupis

Ivan Chupis, originally from Russia, founder of One Love Bar found himself moving in a new direction when he discovered geosic design, sustainable housing. This led him to create the One Love Dome.

We speak to Ivan to find out more…..

What started you on the path of building sustainable housing?

When I had a bar before, I also rented a plot of land. Of course I wanted to use it and build some bungalows for rent but I saw that there is a full island of bungalows and they all look the same. Most of them are working well in high season and stay empty in low season. I didn’t want that. So I decide to build something more interesting.

I remember that I’ve been in KaZantip Festival in Ukraine and I saw there a geo-basic dome house for rent. It was fully booked at the time and the cost was expensive but it was looking amazing. Very attractive and it stayed in my head. So, when I remembered that, I decided to build something like this here. Something very futuristic and eco-friendly.

And, I am not a builder so I never built anything before. So, we started like that. Found some information from different websites and there were not a lot of people who could help me with it. So with my friends we spent more than a year to build this. I call it One Love Dome.

One Love is still alive in another way!

What did you learn along the way?

While I was in the process of building it, the geometric dome, I went into philosophy.

I saw how many opportunities it has and how many benefits it has in comparison with standard houses. But, forgetting all these benefits, you should work with a professional because it is completely another physics of building, air flow that even experienced builders cannot count for.

In the end I found one really good engineering professional who has spent half of his life working with these technologies around the world. In comparison with other dome builders, this man showed me everything. He was very open. He show me all the technologies that exist with their relative advantages. So we compared all of them to find the best way for Thailand and for South East Aisa.

Can you tell us more about the eco-side of things?

There is some misunderstanding about what is eco-friendly. It means you don’t harm nature. For example some bamboo bungalows they call eco bungalows but bamboo is not a proofed material because after a couple of years you will need to replace it. Then you will cut more forrest. With our technologies we can use materials which we can use one time and don’t need to replace. Reducing energy consumption.

Our water for example, we can use three times for different purposes. Our electricity too is self sustainable.

Where does it come from? How do you generate electricity?

Compared with standard houses we have 70-80 percent on electric. So we need create only that remaining 30 percent. That’s why I think experiments with standard houses and solar panels didn’t work because they need to produce too much energy in the first place.

For us, it mostly is solar panels but because of the other energy savings, we don’t need to make too much of it.

Every month there are better and better panels on the market.
 

Approx cost for someone building a dome?

I can’t say exactly but can say it will be little bit more expensive than building a concrete house per sq metre. However, you will save a lot of money after. You will not have to repair it because the materials are very waterproof and robust. Also you save more than 70 percent on air conditioning and electricity. In our way we wanted to make it completely independent.

You don’t have to pay for electricity, water and you stay in a very comfortable microclimate.

The next house I’m going to build is for my parents. Another audience is people that want a house for themselves but it’s still very effective for business. I have proved this with my One Love Dome. It brings me good profit and I am one of the top on Air b n b with just one house.

Only positive feedback.

What’s next?

This year I will build several self-sustaining houses, completely independent and developing future housing.

Is there anything else you want to tell our readers?

Every person can go in different directions. We can learn anything we want pretty fast if we are really involved in it and have a passion for it.

A couple of years ago I didn’t know anything about building sustainable housing. I just started to learn from basics. Ask the professionals. That’s one of the quickest ways. You can read tons of literature. Or, you can speak with a professional for one hour. It’s a moment you’re really growing and you can feel it.

Leave us with your life philosophy…

Every person has their own philosophy and there is no right or wrong - but exactly mine - it’s doing useful things for people and try to do it not for ten people try to do it for a thousand because many of the really big changes in the world were made just by one person.

Just one person but they change the whole world. They move it forward in the right direction. They are simple people with passion. Anyone can do that.

Life is a game.

If you do the same thing everyday it’s a boring one. When this game should be interesting!

We need to grow and get through to the next stages.

Thanks so much for coming in!