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.
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.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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? Read the rest of this entry »
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
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.)
Shay Salomon’s Little House on a Small Planet is not a book about little house design, as I originally thought; it’s a book about everything you should think about before you design and build. Or — if you already own a house — it’s a way to rethink space, and ultimately decide what you want in a “dream house” and what you can compromise in order to live there.
Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan’s Apartment Therapy’s Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces got me excited—not only about designing the tiny house that I will build—but also about organizing and decorating apartment that I’m living in right now. Gillingham-Ryan’s optimism about being able to find an affordable, practical, and beautiful solution to any design challenge was contagious. I couldn’t resist getting off the couch twice while reading the book and making immediate changes to my apartment. Both design revisions cost me $0.00, by the way.
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 the locations and styles vary from a metal-sided house in a crowded Japanese neighborhood, to a windowed wedge perched in the snowy Swiss Alps.
The New York Times just ran a feature on singer and songwriter Kenny White who lives in 600 square feet with 20-foot-plus peaked ceilings on Bedford Street (just around the corner from Christopher Street) in Greenwich Village. The building, named Twin Peaks, was converted from a 19th-century row house into artists’ studios in 1926, and christened by the silent film star Mabel Normand, who broke a bottle of Champagne on the roof.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
is not a book about little house design, as I originally thought; it’s a book about everything you should think about before you design and build. Or — if you already own a house — it’s a way to rethink space, and ultimately decide what you want in a “dream house” and what you can compromise in order to live there.
got me excited—not only about designing the tiny house that I will build—but also about organizing and decorating apartment that I’m living in right now. Gillingham-Ryan’s optimism about being able to find an affordable, practical, and beautiful solution to any design challenge was contagious. I couldn’t resist getting off the couch twice while reading the book and making immediate changes to my apartment. Both design revisions cost me $0.00, by the way.
the locations and styles vary from a metal-sided house in a crowded Japanese neighborhood, to a windowed wedge perched in the snowy Swiss Alps. 
