"Everyone can be constructive even in tiny ways"

June 4, 2008 3:07 AM

Humble abode: Loftcube // Rucksack House // Micro-Compact Home // Superadobe // Zigzag Cabin // Tree Sphere // Mirador // La Petite Maison du Weekend _ all via.
posted by nthdegx (17 comments total)

These are interesting. I spent the weekend living in a comparatively dull, cheap, portable, humble tent - but reading an article about the joys of "glamping" - that would be another way to go.
posted by rongorongo at 3:58 AM on June 4, 2008

These are all lovely and I could live in all of them. Until I had to take a dump.

A home is not a home until you've done basic necessities like eating, sleeping and shitting in it. I googled around for designer outhouses to go with the tiny wood cabins but only found this jet powered one which is totally useless and ugly at the same time.
posted by uandt at 4:01 AM on June 4, 2008

These are beautiful but the SuperAdobe strikes me as the design with the most potential impact due to its low cost. I made the mistake of reading a comment by Stewart Brand that walls are something like 18 percent of the cost of a new home, while the rest is composed of wiring, land acquisition and other infrastructure. This has made me less excited about many of these plans for lower cost housing such as straw bale homes, and skeptical of most of the "mortgage porn" that crops up, i.e. the dream of living without a mortgage.
posted by mecran01 at 6:28 AM on June 4, 2008

Some of these places look stunning, but… more places from WebUrbanist (stay in a park in Germany; in a concrete pipe; using shared facilities).
posted by tellurian at 6:50 AM on June 4, 2008

Cool post nthdegx. Thanks!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:11 AM on June 4, 2008

Would the SuperAdobe be suitable for a summer place in lower New England?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:28 AM on June 4, 2008

A few of those have been on the Blue before, and likely will be again because they're really neat. I do notice though that a lot of the new "sub-compact" homes use a lot of glass; It's going to be a pain in the ass to keep the temperature stable, even using insulating windows. The designs are 25% heatsink.
posted by lekvar at 10:26 AM on June 4, 2008

ZenMasterThis - Would the SuperAdobe be suitable for a summer place in lower New England?

Perfect criticism in the form of a question.

There is nothing humble about owning land. Once you can afford a "place", enclosure is not a problem.
posted by Carmody'sPrize at 10:26 AM on June 4, 2008

Thanks! See also Andrea Zittel.
posted by xod at 10:37 AM on June 4, 2008

Fun post. Metafilter loves small houses. Also cats and Obama.
posted by LarryC at 10:48 AM on June 4, 2008

Almost all of these seem to achieve bringing claustrophobia to the great outdoors.
posted by adamms222 at 10:50 AM on June 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

Carmody'sPrize: ???

I live in New England and I really was wondering whether the Superadobe was suitable to weathering the seasons were I to build one in the hills of NE Connecticut as a low-cost retreat.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 11:09 AM on June 4, 2008

I've seen the LoftCube before and I've wanted to live there ever since. Or it could be I've always wanted to live in a rooftop dwelling when I first saw Stormshadow retire to his hideout.
posted by P.o.B. at 12:59 PM on June 4, 2008

ZenMasterThis-

Oops. I went back and forth over this a few times before I posted. First, I thought it was a serious question. Then, I remembered all the conversations I've been reading on Metafilter for the past few years. Then I thought of my own issues with architectural porn. My bad.

The answer to your question is probably not. Your intuition is correct. This is desert climate architecture. You might check out www.rocioromero.com. She has designed a little seasonal prefab she calls "fish camp" that costs around $20,000, though it's not listed on her website. A little Google-Fu will get you to images.
posted by Carmody'sPrize at 3:27 PM on June 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

Also, shipping container houses.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:38 PM on June 4, 2008

Pshaw. Come over to Japan, to central Tokyo, and there are millions of real small living spaces (with varying degrees of quality) with real, live people living in them, not some proof of concept that some architechture firm thought up. Some of those are really cool, though.
posted by zardoz at 9:30 PM on June 4, 2008

These Tumbleweed Tiny Houses are still my favorite itty-bitty living spaces, but those were very cool to look at.
posted by vytae at 10:39 AM on June 5, 2008