Small House Society: Resources for Life. “Better Living Through Simplicity.” History. Founded in 2002, the Small House Society is a cooperatively managed organization dedicated to the promotion of smaller housing alternatives which can be more affordable and ecological. Mission. Our desire is to support the research, development, and use of smaller living spaces that foster sustainable living for individuals, families, and communities worldwide. Media Contacts. We welcome inquiries from members of the media seeking to report on the small house movement and trends toward simpler more sustainable living. Learn More. Directory of Builders. Featured Book World Interest Below are maps showing recent site visitors from around the world.
Visitors – Global Visitors – Europe Visitors – North America Visitors – Australia Visitors – Asia Like this: Like Loading... We The Tiny House People. This is journey into the tiny homes of people searching for simplicity, self-sufficiency, minimalism and happiness by creating shelter in caves, converted garages, trailers, tool sheds, river boats and former pigeon coops.
Basically, Dirksen made a documentary on people living in tiny houses. For around five years she was traveling the world and filming these segments. Kirsten Dirksen is co-founder of faircompanies.com and a Huffington Post blogger. She has worked for MTV, Oxygen, The Travel Channel and Sundance Channel. From the author: I still live in a relatively spacious 1000 square foot apartment with my family of 4 (soon-to-be 5) and I’m not looking to downsize, but I can’t get enough of these tiny homes. I continue to be impressed by how so many Tiny House People have been able to let go of their stuff and not despite, but because of this, find a certain calm. Watch the full documentary now. Mobile Tiny House Promotes Natural Living. Let’s say you’re an Iowan plotting to haul a 240-square-foot tiny house-on-wheels across the country to the West Coast. What would be the most desirable — and logical — final destination?
Portland? Olympia? Joshua Tree? Sonoma County? If you guessed Sonoma, “epicenter” of the not-so-underground-anymore tiny house movement, you’re right on the money. After a journey filled with both setbacks (snowstorms in Texas) and pleasant surprises (randomly passing a Tumbleweed Tiny House, also in transport, while on the road in the Southwest), now that the designed-from-scratch labor of love is settled for now on the property of a tiny house “host” in Sebastopol and the necessary set-up requirements (water, power, compost piles) have been checked off the list, Lisefski is ready to start sharing the story of — and building a community around — his own tiny house project.
With the tagline “Less House. He goes on to say: The main aspect of the Tiny Project is to build a tiny house. Build A Log Cabin For $100. Living in a cozy little cabin nestled in the woods is part and parcel of the classic Thoreau-inspired lifestyle most folks dream of now and then. But the romantic vision of log-home life is shattered — for many people — by the sheer cost of such structures, which can be as high as that of equivalent conventional homes.
That doesn't have to be the case, however. My wife and I kept down the cash outlay for our “Walden” by gathering most of the materials from the land where our house was to stand, and then building it ourselves, using only hand tools. As a result, our small home cost us only about $100 to construct … and the project was so simple that we’re convinced anyone with access to a few basic implements and a good supply of timber could build a log cabin too. First Steps One of the ways in which we kept our expenses down was to choose an uncomplicated design for our cabin. The size of our cabin was limited more by our stamina than by the design. Log Foraging A Fine Floor. 7 Of The World's Best Nano Houses. Studio-apartment dwellers may feel reasonably content living a small-scale existence. But if transplanted in the country, how many would opt for a similarly sized house?
Driven by a commitment to reduce energy consumption and built space, there’s a growing trend among the eco-conscious to build tiny homes. A new book, Nano House by Phyllis Richardson (Thames & Hudson), gathers 40 of the best-designed examples from around the world--all of which showcase an appreciation for the efficient use of space, materials, and resources. Will they inspire “real housewives” of Beverly Hills to abandon their McMansions, short of a foreclosure notice? Not very likely. Check out the slideshow of 7 houses from the book. Diminutive Dwellings - Tiny Houses. Urban Nomad. We've done a bit of microhousing (and micro-driving) coverage of late, and here's some more. Inspired by the Urban Nomad movement of the 1960s and 1970s (which focused on diminutive, movable dwellings in cities), a Glasgow School of Art design student named Alec Farmer has built a tiny home in which he'll live for the next year.
Using the instructions written by [Ken] Isaacs in 'How To Build Your Own Living Structures', I have created a replica of this 50 year old design, and plan to live in it, in the centre of Glasgow, Scotland, for one year. In doing so I hope to gain more insight into Isaacs design, and also into the movement as a whole. I move in at the start of September 2010. Farmer describes the work of Isaacs as "smaller than architecture but bigger than furniture," and that sounds about right.
Green Egg House. Images credit Zhao Kang Rents in Beijing are high, so designer Daihai Fei built himself a wonderful little green home that may well become a new icon for the Tiny House Movement.Tipster Spooky writes: Daihai Fei built his amazing egg-house on a bamboo frame, covered with various insulating materials, and topped with a layer of stitched bag. The bags themselves are filled with sawdust and grass seeds, which he sprays with water regularly, to help the grass grow faster. Inspired by the grass-covered roofs of Norway, he knows the grass will over greater protection for his home.
On the inside, he has all the necessary facilities, including a bed, a small sink, a lamp powered by a small solar panel and even a tiny bookshelf. It looks quite comfy, and it is parked right across the street from where he works so that he saves on time and transit. (That is another virtue we preach about mobile living) I am not certain what keeps the water out; burlap bags do not exactly work like shingles. Student Constructs Complete Home Of 75 ft² 552 Flares Twitter 12 Facebook 335 Reddit 1 StumbleUpon 198 LinkedIn 2 inShare2 Google+ 4 552 Flares × There’s a kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, and even a patio Since 2000, China’s cities have expanded at an average rate of 10% annually.
It is estimated that China’s urban population will increase by 400 million people by 2025, when its cities will house a combined population of over one billion. That limitations can actually boost creativity is shown by the Chinese architecture student who designed this 75 ft² wooden house (23 m²) Source: Imgur, Wikipedia smart architecture, prefabricated houses china, architecture china photos (20 votes, average: 4.80 out of 5) Tiny Earthen Home Dome. Project led by: Jeffrey Location: Aprovecho, Cottage Grove, OR Date: September 2011 – April 2012 Reclaimed timber ceiling feature, surrounded by earthen plaster The project began with an idea: by reducing the size of a house, we actually increase the space we live in.
Having a smaller home forces us outside and into nature. My aim was to make a well built cabin cheaply; using material destined for the landfill as much as possible.I feel that much of the western world has become a ‘throw-away’ society. No longer do we repair our belongings when they wear out or break, but instead we thrown them away and buy new ones. I think knowledge of the value of materials is being lost. I wanted the cabin to be small, with room enough for only a bed, desk and small wood stove for winter heat. I decided on the geodesic dome as the shape for my cabin. To begin the project I constructed a nine-foot, ten sided deck using wood salvaged from a torn down shed and concrete pier blocks that were found on site. Cozy House Created From Bookshelves. As we all know, now that we are experiencing the era of the iPad and Kindle, traditional books are becoming less and less popular.
As a matter of fact, even some elementary schools are replacing books with iPads. I have a friend who just got her packet for attending University in the fall, and it came complete with an iPad 2 and a list of e-books to order for her classes. People are handling this major transition in different ways. There are those who always chime in with, “Those e-books will never compare to real books.” Some designers are handling the change by looking at it from a different perspective. Designer Nendo created this award-winning house in Japan a few years ago. Build This Cozy Cabin For Under $4,000. Related Content Build a Houseboat Here is a plan for how to build your own floating cabin, "The Live Aboard Houseboat. " Rays of early-morning sunlight gently peek through the windows, easing you awake. Looking down from the sleeping loft, you see everything you need: a pine table; a box piled with hardwood, split and ready for the woodstove; and a compact kitchen in the corner.
In this article, I’ll show you how to build a 14-by-20-foot cabin featuring a sleeping loft over the porch for about $4,000. My own cabin adventure began in 1986, when I built one as an inexpensive place to stay while constructing my house — that’s when I began learning what makes cabin design and construction successful. What follows is a cabin plan with the hands-on know-how I wish I had 20 years ago. I believe in building for the long haul. A Firm Foundation Every well-built structure begins with the foundation. Building the Floor Frame Start by gathering rot-resistant 6-by-6 timbers for the outer rim. How to Build a Tiny Off-Grid House for $2500. Paul Wheaton/Video screen capture From life inside a tiny, 7'x12' portable house to touring an infamous roundhouse, we've been pretty fascinated by the DIY tiny house movement. Here's a great video on how to build your own tiny, cordwood, off-grid roundhouse—including some detailed tips and ideas on both the drawbacks and strengths of this particular approach.
Uploaded by Paul Wheaton—the same chap who brought us videos on how to build "hugelkultur" raised beds, and making organic lawn fertilizer from moldy hay—what I like about this video is not just the tour of an awesome, unique dwelling. It's refreshing to also see full and frank discussion of the drawbacks and difficulties encountered on any particular project. The search for truly sustainable living is a journey, and nobody has it all figured out yet. For more information on the venue of this video, check out this blog post by Mr Kraft Does Life on Feral Farm's off grid way of life.
Tiny House and Micro Apartment Information Repository. Copyright © 2012-2014 by Zack Smith. All rights reserved. Introduction This is a webpage devoted to listing as many examples of people creating tiny houses or adapting to life in micro apartments as I can find, in the hope that it might embolden people to follow suit and embrace a more minimalist, less consumeristic lifestyle. These smaller structures embody the understanding that less is more and that a life of accumulation, of filling in spaces with bought stuff, is an impediment to happiness and should be avoided. This is mainly a links page, and I cannot guarantee anything at all about the sites that I am offering links to, but I try to periodically search for and add links that are fresh and to thereby offer something useful and interesting.
For the former page about shipping container-based architecture, click here. The List Tiny Houses A tiny house is roughly defined as being less than 750 square feet (70 square meters), or 500 square feet (45 sq. m) depending on whom you ask. Historic Shepherds Huts. A quick note to say that the excellent site dedicated to shepherds' huts - Historic Shepherds Hut ("a web based archive dedicated to record survivors and the forgotten part they once played in our country's rich agricultural past") - is heading to a new location at www.shepherdhuts.co.uk because of hosting problems. They're still in the process of moving everything across but it's worth changing your bookmarks now as they are also planning to expand the site to deal with lots of new huts which have come their way as a result of recent media coverage.
Incidentally, if you have a shepherd's hut for sale, please do contact Shedworking - there were many, many disappointed readers who were very interested in the last one we advertised (including the editor of a wellknown national magazine) that I'm sure you'd find a buyer quickly. Our Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden officespecialists.Click here for more details. Hobbit Hole playhouses, sheds, cottages, saunas, more! How To Pack A Whole Lot Of Living In 221 sq ft. One of the key limitations in the design of many tiny houses is the fact that they have to be built on trailer chassis.
Many zoning bylaws have minimum building sizes to keep the riffraff out and the property taxes up; many building codes have minimum room sizes and other rules that make it very hard to build small. By having wheels, it becomes a recreational vehicle and it can sneak under a lot of radars. But it's really tough to design a decent space in an 8'-6" wide (exterior dimensions!) Space. © Tiny House Build Andrew and Gabriella Morrison have pulled it off in their 221 square foot home and write about it (and how they live in it) on the Tiny House Blog. In many tiny houses, designers compromise on something, be it kitchen or bathroom. To our surprise we have not felt, at any point, that we have had to make any compromises or sacrifices in our self designed and built home. What's really different here is the central area, with that built in sofa and eating counter/ home office.
Electric Camper: Tiny Geometric House on Wheels. Sick Of Paying Rent? The Tiny House Movement. A 3-D Printed House? Teenager builds tiny home. Do-It-Yourself Downsizing. 8 Survival Tips For Your Tiny House Build.