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Architect's Dream House: Less Than 200 Square Feet

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Re: Architect's Dream House: Less Than 200 Square Feet

#41

Post by kaib »

Brakenshire wrote: post #19

This is fine in a warm country, or in a place where you're going to be in or out of your house all the time. Living in a cold and/or isolated place, being cooped up in such a small area would be unhealthy, you need to move around much more as a matter of course. Particularly if you're working at home, you'd have to be very proactive to avoid serious impacts on your health, because your lifestyle would be almost inher…

Having been raised in a cold and isolated country (Finland) I think you incorrectly assume that means a lot of time spent indoors. This can be true, but does not have to.

I do think you are on to something with the idea of pods, most farmhouses where I come from are arranged in a number of small separate buildings.

Re: Architect's Dream House: Less Than 200 Square Feet

#42

Post by rch »

aaron695 wrote: post #17
nostromo wrote: post #16

I think technology is the enabling factor behind the tiny house movement. Books, CDs, movies, photos, files, paperwork, videogames: all compressed down to the size of a hard drive. So many random gadgets have been replaced by a smart phone, like camera equipment, phones, flashlights, calendars, etc. Now people are ditching TVs as well and just using iPads and laptops to watch video. There are other more subtle things…

> I think technology is the enabling factor behind the tiny house movement. Not totally, as others have mentioned our grandparents generation lived tiny as well. Technology allowed us to consume big but yes it'll allow us to go back tiny again by consuming efficiently.

Yeah, but these days you can have an actual career and telecommute from a place where the land is still less than $1000 an acre.

Re: Architect's Dream House: Less Than 200 Square Feet

#44

Post by garrettgrimsley »

minimax wrote: post #33

What is the difference between this and a single wide trailer home?

This home is far smaller than the average single-wide. I looked around online for floor plans and it appears that the smallest plans available are 600sqft or larger.

http://www.mheinc.com/singlewide.htm

http://www.solitairehomes.com/models/single-wide/floorplans....

I'm also a delivery driver with a large (>200 unit) trailer park nearby and none of the homes come close to being this small. Additionally you will note that the trailer that the tiny house is situated on has a fifth wheel for being pulled by a truck, while a single-wide typically will be on a platform with a conventional style hitch.

Re: Architect's Dream House: Less Than 200 Square Feet

#45

Post by minimax »

garrettgrimsley wrote: post #44
minimax wrote: post #33

What is the difference between this and a single wide trailer home?

This home is far smaller than the average single-wide. I looked around online for floor plans and it appears that the smallest plans available are 600sqft or larger. http://www.mheinc.com/singlewide.htm http://www.solitairehomes.com/models/single-wide/floorplans.... I'm also a delivery driver with a large (>200 unit) trailer park nearby and none of the homes come close to being this small. Additionally you will note…

Good points. Thanks!

Re: Architect's Dream House: Less Than 200 Square Feet

#46

Post by snogglethorpe »

Brakenshire wrote: post #19

This is fine in a warm country, or in a place where you're going to be in or out of your house all the time. Living in a cold and/or isolated place, being cooped up in such a small area would be unhealthy, you need to move around much more as a matter of course. Particularly if you're working at home, you'd have to be very proactive to avoid serious impacts on your health, because your lifestyle would be almost inher…

But in many places that have a "small dwelling" culture, what happens is exactly as you might expect: people do not just sit in their single chair 24 hours a day, rather they start spending more time in public, and relatively less time at home. As small dwellings are often correlated with population density, this works pretty naturally, with smaller dwellings being in exactly those areas with a greater number of amenities catering to people living in them.

Indeed, in such case, you're probably a lot better off than "home dwellers" as far as exercise is concerned, as walking around to go to the cafe to read, etc, uses a lot more energy than just walking around your house...

In a way, what happens is that your dwelling expands to include your neighborhood as well (with the actual dwelling remaining as more just a place to sleep).

[Certainly this sort of thing is a little easier in a warm climate, but it clearly works fine in many other climates too. A little snow doesn't stop people.]

Re: Architect's Dream House: Less Than 200 Square Feet

#49

Post by mortenjorck »

stirno wrote: post #8
akcreek wrote: post #5

200 sq ft would be hard for me personally, but mid-January I'm closing on a 375 sq ft building that I'm converting to a living space for myself, my wife and our dog. It will be short term for us while we restore the main building though... probably 18-24 months. After that it we'll use it as a guest house and I'll probably put it on Airbnb or similar as well. I've always wanted to live in a smaller space though so I'…

Super efficient apartments/small living spaces are very attractive to me. I've never tried actually calling one home though -- not very common where I live. How creative do you expect you'll have to get in a space that size?

I scaled down to a ~550 sq ft unit a couple of years ago, but had an interesting realization a few months after moving in that the walk-through closet that leads to my bathroom (maybe 175 sq feet together) could theoretically work as its own micro-apartment. I closed the door, and started mentally fitting a bed, mini-fridge, microwave and hot plate, and desk into the space. It all fit, give or take a half a foot here or there, and assuming a bit of custom storage.

Admittedly, though, I must have limits for small living spaces. My favorite part of this exercise was opening the door back out into the rest of the apartment, upon which my studio suddenly felt palatial.

Re: Architect's Dream House: Less Than 200 Square Feet

#50

Post by clarkm »

nostromo wrote: post #16

I think technology is the enabling factor behind the tiny house movement. Books, CDs, movies, photos, files, paperwork, videogames: all compressed down to the size of a hard drive. So many random gadgets have been replaced by a smart phone, like camera equipment, phones, flashlights, calendars, etc. Now people are ditching TVs as well and just using iPads and laptops to watch video. There are other more subtle things…

I just finished watching BBS: The Documentary and noticed the same thing. It seemed like everyone they interviewed had an entire room full of old computer equipment. They had boxes of software, walls of hardware manuals, stacks of monitors, cabinets of capacitors and resistors, rows of soldering irons, and at least one fully-equipped workbench.

Up until the past decade or so if you wanted to be a serious computer enthusiast you needed an empty garage; now you just need space on your desk for a Macbook Pro.

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