There Be Hobbit Sheep Here
I suspect I’m not the only one who has sometimes yearned to live like a Hobbit. These sheep in New Zealand are living the dream as the current residents of the actual Hobbit village constructed for the Lord of the Rings movies. These tiny houses are no more than frail movie sets, but they do seem to make great little shelters for these contented creatures. Thanks for sending this my way Dav!
Tiny Historic Beach House
One of my long time readers, Dav, passed a link to this photo to me the other day. It’s great to see these tiny historic beach houses photographed in Ostend, Belgium from about 100 years ago. Great find again Dav!
Photo credit Topical Press Agency/Getty Images
Tiny House – New Again
It’s always fascinating to me to find a new tiny house built inside the ruins of an old tiny house. This one is just over 300 square feet and is located in Snape Maltings, Snape, Suffolk. The architect was Haworth Tompkins.
Old English Ruins
One of my regular readers ran across this fantastic photo album of old English ruins. Many of the photos are of very large structures but tucked here and there are some incredible tiny huts and cottages. Thanks again Dav!
Stone Beehive Hut
Many people are very familiar with the work, writings, and contributions of Lloyd Kahn, the founding editor-in-chief of Shelter Publications, Inc. This photo came from a trip he took to Europe. It’s a little stone hut located on the southwest coast of Ireland.
What’s amazing about this little structure is that it’s constructed without mortar and was probably built around 200 A.D. The trick to its longevity was to fit the stones carefully together with careful attention to each concentric circular course. For me small structures like this define the words sustainable architecture. Photo credit Lloyd Kahn.
Shelter, Shacks and Shanties
Steve from Murchison, New Zealand send me a link to a book written and illustrated in 1914 by Daniel C Beard. Beard was also one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America. The book is called Shelter, Shacks and Shanties and focuses on simple shelters that can be built with simple tools. You can read it online at Project Gutenberg. Thanks for sending this my way Steve!
Blast from the Recent Past
It’s always nice to have a blast from the past for gaining perspective. A reader of Tiny House Blog passed this onto Kent the other day reminding us that tiny houses are not really a new idea at all. Well I guess reading Walden again will tell you that too… in any event these house trucks are really great to see and read about.
Historic Tree Houses
This past week there was an article on Dornob about hostoric tree house and other funky little buildings. Nice quick read and lots of fun photos. Historic Tree Houses
Tiny House Survivors and Ghosts
This week there were two posts on two different blogs about historic tiny houses that avoided the wrecking ball and lost the battle against urban development leaving only a shadow of the existence.
Stone House
Architect Gregory Smith send this photo into Tiny House Blog for Kent’s regular Tiny House in a Landscape feature. It’s a historic weekend cabin near the edge of a river in Cisco Grove, California. I wanted to share it with you because it’s an excellent example of how a free locally sourced material can be used to build a home. It would be heavy meticulous work to build a tiny rock house but it would be cheap and the thermal mass would keep you cool in summer and warm in winter.
