About us
Hoffmann’s first inspiration for pursuing alternative construction processes occurred when visiting family in Ibiza, Spain. “My grandfather was from this Spanish island and I visited an older cousin’s home that was almost 400 years old.” The perimeter walls of the home were comprised of stone excavated from the building site. The perimeter walls were three feet thick with a cement and stucco finish for the interior and exterior. The mass of these walls allowed the ambient temperature of the ground to conduct up through the walls to help cool the house in the summer and assist in keeping the home warmer in the winter. Ibiza happens to be at approximately the same latitude as Austin, Texas. The island resembles the rocky hills surrounding Lake Travis near Austin. For additional heating, the home had a very elegant and non-mechanical system. The walls had Kiva fireplaces built into the massive wall sections and these small fireplaces would heat the walls which would then heat the home. This was an elegantly simple system.
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