Small House Style

After 5 short but exciting years in green prefab design, Michelle Kaufmann has regretfully announced that she is closing the doors of her progressive homebuilding business. In a May 27th blog entry, Kaufmann posted: "Despite our best efforts, the financial meltdown and plunging home values have caught up with us. The recent closing of a factory partner as well as the gridlocked lending faced by homeowners, has proved ...

Thanks to Clayton Homes, the "i" prefix has finally made its way into the small house market. After 75 years of mobile home manufacturing, the i-house is Clayton's first big stab at green building. On the swankier end of things, the i-house is super stylish and slightly more expensive than some of the minimalist exemplars featured here at Small House Style, but Clayton's new invention might yet be ...

Until June 13th, tiny house architect Jay Shafer is on a road trip of a different kind. By popular demand, Shafer has hitched up Fencl, a 130 square foot home on wheels (pictured below), and is trekking across the country. Shafer's tour takes Fencl from San Francisco to New York City, with open houses and building and design workshops scattered along the way. At the end of its ...

Shipping containers are looking more and more viable for the small house and small living movement. Yearly, millions of shipping containers arrive in U.S. ports, but only a portion of these containers ever leave our consumptive shores. For many companies, the cost of shipping empty containers back across seas for reuse exceeds that of purchasing new ones. Add to that our negative balance of trade, and empty containers ...