Also see: Tiny House Design and Tiny House Map
I’m pretty sure the big bad wolf would love to come across a piggy living in this paper house; but at a cost of only $5,000 I bet that piggy could build anther pretty easily. This is a 400 squre foot house that is made from recycled cardboard and weights a total of 1,700 pounds. It was created by Gerd Niemoeller. Read more about the Paper House.
This is an incredible story about the Long family who lives a two-day walk off-the-grid. By every measure this is an extreme example of how off the beaten track one could choose to live. I’m not suggesting that this family’s lifestyle is ideal but their example does stretch the imagination. Watch the Bush Babes – New Zealand video. Also be sure to read about the Long family on Frigal Dad.
Ziggy (a.k.a. Brian Liloia) has moved into his cob house at the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. His blog is now filled with cob house construction photos and information. The most recent post is on laying his earthen floor. Read more about building a cob house at Ziggy’s blog.
A new tiny builder is emerging in Colorado called Jalopy Cabins. The tiny log cabin in the photo is 140 square feet and is available for $10,000. Learn more about Jalopy Cabins at Tiny House Blog.
If you read my design blog you probably noticed that I recently posted version one of the free house plans for an 8×20 Tiny Solar House. I’ll post an updated version soon that will include feedback from readers. The drawings were made entirely with the free version of Google SketchUp. Visit Tiny House Design to download these free house plans.
This coming Friday (July 31st, 2009) is the deadline for design entries to ReBurbia, a design competition sponsored by Dwell and Inhabitat. Here’s a little blurb from their website:
Calling all future-forward architects, urban designers, renegade planners and imaginative engineers: Show us how you would re-invent the suburbs! What would a McMansion become if it weren’t a single-family dwelling? How could a vacant big box store be retrofitted for agriculture? What sort of design solutions can you come up with to facilitate car-free mobility, ‘burb-grown food, and local, renewable energy generation?
This should be another very interesting project to watch. Learn more at the ReBurbia website.
This should be exciting to watch unfold. It’s a design competition focused on visualizing the ideal sustainable village. Here’s a quote from their website:
This is a contest for the visions of an ideal sustainable village: a place where you would want to live, study, work and experience the challenges and rewards of an ecologically durable lifestyle. In other words: to define the future of living.
The entry deadline is 15th August 2009 at 12.00 GMT. Learn more on the CLEAR Village Foundation website.
I just stumbled on this great blog and story of a young family of three living on the road in a Class-C RV. They are freelance web designers who can work anywhere with an internet connection and have chosen to hit the road instead of tying themselves down. Explore Tumblewagon
If this lifestyle interests you should also check out Technomadia.
Kent Griswold has setup a website dedicated to the Sonoma Shanty. You can buy a kit or finished house from Stephen Marshall at Little House on the Trailer or the plans from Kent at Sonoma Shanty. Kent has posted several larger views of the plans themselves at Sonoma Shanty for those of you that want to get a closer look at the plans. Here is a recent testimony by Nick from Indiana who bought the plans:
I have to say I am rather impressed with the plans, the ability to mix ease of construction and functionality in this design is really pretty amazing. Example, using the 12/12 roof, provides simple construction and yields sufficient loft space. You’ve also eliminated the need for a birds mouth. These are all things a person new to construction would likely mess up. For those of us who have previously built such things, the elimination and simplification of these adds significant time savings, less room for error and waste, and ease of assembly. I am very satisfied with the plans.
Kent Griswold and I were chatting the other day about our tiny house blogs and sharing our recent learnings about popular posts. We’ve both noticed that for some reason cube shaped tiny houses grab a lot of people’s attention. Alex over at Shedworking posted this tiny cube shaped tiny garden office this past week and I have to say I love it, especially the green roof. Moonroom