Tiny House Living

The folks at fair companies have been putting together many great videos, including some that feature tiny houses. This video shows a 150 square foot tiny cob house being built by interns at North Carolina’s Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute.

Modern Hobbit House

Cobworks, located in British Columbia, builds low cost structures from natural and local materials while advocating a spirit of cooperation and social responsibility. They also offer workshops and apprenticeships in learning to build with cob.

Cobworks

I always learn new stuff while reading Lloyd Kahn’s blog. This week I spotted this funky little tiny house built by the folks at Living Earth Structures in Petaluma, California. These folks build all sorts of earthen structures including benches, walls, ovens, and houses. They also offer adobe and cob workshops for those who want to learn about building in this extremely low-cost and sustainable building method. Below is a video from their website.

Living Earth Structures

I’m starting to think that building with earth makes more sense than any other building method.  I must admit I’m terribly biased because my real professional training and education is in the ceramic arts. The main disadvantage is that they are no portable like so many of the tiny houses I write about and explore through design.

Here’s another great find from Lloyd Kahn’s blog… it’s an article on 10 Amazing Earthen Buildings.

One of my readers on Tiny House Design sent me this very nicely done adobe casita near Abiquiu, New Mexico. Three months out of the year Samuel Grey lives in this tiny house. In a few years this will be his full-time home.

Adobe Casita

A few weeks ago I drew up a 3D drawing of Michael Thompson’s rammed earth wall former and posted the drawings on Tiny House Design. He’s now getting more press for his low cost rammed earth homes and small buildings; read the full article in Eastern Daily Press.

Read more at Shedworking

Learn more about his rammed earth workshops

If you have a subscription to Mother Earth News you probably spotted this cute earthbag building. While it’s small footprint (8-foot diameter) is probably too small to be a tiny house for most people it is an excellent example of how easy an earthbag home could be built.  There are lots of books and plans for earthbag homes available but you can find a lot of information on the internet about building with earthbags online.

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.

The folks over at naturalhomes.org have put together a nice summary of 10 tiny natural tiny homes that they’ve come across over time. These homes are all made from things like strawbales, cob, and earthbags and they are from all around the world too.

Another very cool feature on the natural homes website is a tiny house map. At the moment there are 29 tiny houses mapped and I’m sure they will add more over time. Be sure to bookmark naturalhomes.org and if so inclined follow naturalhomes on Twitter.