Mini House by Alejandro Bahamón
When I think of a mini house, a scaled-down farmhouse with a garden and big back yard comes to mind; however in Alejandro Bahamón’s Mini House
Gary Chang’s Tiny Hong Kong Apartment Space Saver
In Hong Kong where space is a luxury, this ultra hip 330 square foot apartment features a futuristic sliding wall system that creates up to 24 different room combinations.
Gary Chang grew up in a tiny apartment that he shared with his parents, sisters and a tenant (which is typical in Hong Kong.) His room was the hallway. It shaped his architectural philosophy and gave him first hand experience designing small spaces.
You name it, Gary’s apartment has it. Master bedroom, guest bedroom, bathroom, tub, kitchen, tv room, kitchen, office, even a screening room.
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T-Modulome prefab by nottoscale at Hometta
Founded in 2002 by Peter Strzebniok with a mission to explore the possibilities of prefab modular housing, nottoscale is a collaborative design firm wedded to the idea that prefab homes can be thoughtful, beautiful, sustainable and affordable. nottoscale developed its “Modulome,” a prefab modular home system designed to maximize the flexibility of modular construction while minimizing each home’s environmental footprint. nottoscale realizes this goal through an innovative prefab “building chassis” upon which its Modulome is set, as well as a highly efficient wood panel system based upon the principles of a 2-foot grid. This panel system enables each panel to be customized according to the fit, design and placement of windows, wall space and entryways. From here, the customizable panels create modules that form the body of each house.
Mudgee Permanent Camping, NSW Australia
At approximately 10 feet square Mudgee Permanent Camping designed by Casey Brown Architecture takes up a very small footprint. Located at the edge of a ridge on a sheep station in central western NSW, Australia, the tower is surrounded by large granite boulders and ancient dead trees.
Russell Lea Small Studio by Ben Giles Architect
Small House Real Life #1
What and How Big? This is a small self-contained studio dwelling of approximately 60m2 (645 sq. ft.) located in inner-west Sydney designed by Ben Giles. It is a new separate residential dwelling and a single car garage built to the rear of the existing home. It contains a ground floor living / kitchen / dining area. Behind this is a combined bathroom and laundry. Upstairs is a bedroom sleeping loft that is connected to the main living space which provides a sense of spaciousness and volume to this small house. The existing garage and studio on the lot were demolished. A portion of the garden was reclaimed to increase landscaping.
Jay Shafer & The Tumbleweed Tiny House Company featured on the cover of Sunday’s Parade magazine
We know it probably seems like Small House Style is part of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company marketing team but we can’t help giving them attention. And Jay and Steve did it again. Jay Shafer and his Tumbleweed Tiny House Company are featured on the cover of this Sunday’s Parade magazine. Keep reading… there are more Tumbleweed Tiny House Company plans on sale below!
Small Oregon Coast Garden House by Obie Bowman
At 325 sq ft, this small off-grid building on the Oregon coast serves as a guest house and a writing studio all wrapped up in a single, small green house. Designed by Obie Bowman, a Sonoma County, CA architect, the basic structure and materials were influenced by the main house on the property which was constructed a few years earlier and uses recycled, locally sourced, and certified materials in construction of a low maintenance house.
The Small Oregon Coast Garden House by Obie Bowman was featured in a new book by Cristina Paredes Benitez and Alex Sanchez Vidiella Small Eco Houses: Living Green in Style
Small house movement unlikely in San Francisco?
So says Anna Marie Hibble for SFGate (The San Francisco Chronicle) notwithstanding yet another Yahoo News feature indicating that the small house movement is thriving. Though neighboring Sonoma has become a “mini-mecca for the tiny house industry, with an assortment of new businesses launching over the last few years,” the question of where small houses would go in San Francisco is a conundrum considering a “famously difficult” building and permit process. Check out the comments – by the sounds of them San Franciscans are not ready for small houses yet anyway. Or are they just sick of living in small spaces?
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Jill and Mike’s Tumbleweed Tiny House Company Fencl Variation
A couple of months ago Small House Style readers Jill, Mike and their three kids got in touch with us to share their small house success. They built a variation of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company Fencl.
Read their story below and check out the pictures at the end of the post.
We live in the Pacific NW and in 2009 we built a variation of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company’s Fencl plan. It is approximately 250sq ft. The cost was about $16K (less than projected, partly because we opted for vinyl windows instead of wood with aluminum cladding.)
A $40K prefab container home in NYC?
Just a few short years ago, living in a shipping container was considered to be a slightly upmarket version of living in a dumpster. Now, however, containers are being recycled for housing purposes across the globe, with a remarkably chic reputation being attached to the practice. Readily available, affordable, easily weatherproofed, roomy, conveniently expandable, and unsurprisingly easy to ship, they might just take off.
Image credit: Inhabitat
The derelict shanty cities of empty containers surrounding most major ports mirror the story of trade deficits. Their inexpensiveness is their downfall: across long haul trade routes, it’s comparable in price to buy a new container on one’s own side of the ocean than ship the old unit back empty. So their abundance, coupled with their stackable structural integrity, has stirred many an architect’s creative juices.
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