Comments on: Bigger than a breadbox.

Bigger than a breadbox.

dobbs — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:05:45 -0800

Tiny Houses - Design Boom compiles a nice list of tiny residences around the world.

By: Tube

Tube — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:20:48 -0800

Seattle's Smallest House?

By: jayder

jayder — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:36:49 -0800

holy shit this rocks.

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:38:51 -0800

I keep this book in my living room, and never tire of looking at it. It makes my 950 sf apartment seem huge!

By: dirigibleman

dirigibleman — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:02:30 -0800

Tiny houses On the Rhine.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:23:11 -0800

Thoreau's place

By: troy

troy — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:23:17 -0800

heh, the "single hauz", inspired by the modern highway advertising billboard -- it'd be badass to actually build one of these in the city with a proper billboard presentation earning you money to pay the ground rent. From 2 minutes of googling I see that a moderately-sized wallscape in a high-traffic area can (apparently) bring in $10,000+ mo, enough to cover the mortgage on a $2M property. hmmm.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:29:10 -0800

That is the very best tiny house collection I've seen on the web. Awesome post dobbs. Oh man, I love the single hauz. Way cool! I'm fond of little dwellings. A couple come to mind to share here. The mini island with house built on recycled bottles. And chattel houses, small because they needed to be portable for all the wrong reasons. For the last 21 years I've lived in a tiny apartment in NYC, about 325 sq feet and always wondered why there hasn't been a great store for tiny place furniture, collecting the good stuff all in one place, instead of having to hunt and peck for ingenious design in various corners of the universe. There are so many tiny dwellings in the world, in NYC and Japan especially, I hope somebody makes a tiny home furniture site and makes tons of money doing it.

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:35:38 -0800

How many ways can someone misspell tumbleweed? I'm just saying...

By: christopherious

christopherious — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:37:40 -0800

Dirk Dieter (previously on MeFi) and his 250-sq-ft house.

By: troy

troy — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:45:28 -0800

the "colani rotor house" is reminiscent of a 3x3x3 (a la rubik's cube]) design idea I had for a tiny house a couple of years ago. In this design, the core cube is the main activity area, which would be the home office in my case. Instead of stairs, though, the rest of the rooms are accessed by lowering and raising the entire house up or down 1 level relative to the core cube. The ground level would have the garage and utility room. The main level would have the kitchen, lounge, and washroom. The top level would have the bedroom suite. In essence, instead of moving around the house throughout the day, the house would bring the required spaces to the occupant as they needed them. Kinda sedentary, but fun. Amazing how god-awful bad American architecture has remained. Tooling around my old haunts in central Tokyo via google streetview I was reminded at how unconservative their civic architecture has been & is.

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:52:58 -0800

Oh man, I totally want to move into the spherical treehouse. Awesome post!

By: Awkward Philip

Awkward Philip — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 13:59:33 -0800

Tiny House?

By: acro

acro — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:49:21 -0800

Reminds me of a book via Cool Tools

By: minervous

minervous — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:49:54 -0800

Nickyskye - there is such a store. Tiny Living.

By: found missing

found missing — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:15:54 -0800

There are a lot of tiny houses at the Martha's Vineyard Campmeeting Association.

By: marvin

marvin — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:46:05 -0800

Ted Kaczynski stylee... Those Swedes are onto something

By: photomusic86

photomusic86 — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:13:10 -0800

This is great. People always give me funny looks when i tell them i don't need much space. these guys make it look wonderful!

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:43:31 -0800

Thanks minervous. I was disappointed though, slim pickings really. I hoped for a real selection of innovative designs. I do really like the case dining table.

By: Countess Elena

Countess Elena — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:17:03 -0800

I love the idea of tiny living. I'm doing it right now in a studio, but not too well, I must admit. I need kitchen counter space. And surfaces to clutter. There's no room for clutter in la maison du tiny. Do the people who live there take out the trash twice a day? Where are their tax records from the '90s? Where are the scrapbooks they made as kids? Where are the awesome prints and found objects that came into their lives? Where are the books? They probably composted that stuff, or never collected it at all. Still, I seriously wanted the Single Hauz when I saw it, particularly one on a single stilt over the water. Then I realized that the dogwalking arrangements would be difficult. Also, what happens when a storm blows in?

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:33:42 -0800

Ah, countess Elena. You nailed it. Tiny living means spreading one's messes elsewhere. Papers, albums, possibly wearable clothes, that bicycle one wants to ride but not just now. Stuff. Found some other odd looking places, the sphere houses at Bolwoningen. Little bubbles on stalks. Part Teletubbie, part alien from the 80's. Another kind of mini house I like are the ones in the allotment gardens in Amsterdam.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 03:36:06 -0800

Do the people who live there take out the trash twice a day? Where are their tax records from the '90s? Where are the scrapbooks they made as kids? Where are the awesome prints and found objects that came into their lives? Where are the books? They probably composted that stuff, or never collected it at all. Most of that stuff can go into storage somewhere else. How often do you really need most of that stuff? Books are great because they can fit anywhere - on high shelves, in corners... I think "living" in this case comes down to the having only the stuff you really need on a daily basis. I just went through this when I moved from San Francisco to London this year. I decided to leave everything behind. I sold furniture. Sold or gave away books. Threw away old clothes. Sent stuff off to storage at my parents house. I arrived in London with nothing more than 2 suitcases full of clothes and my laptop. Since then I've become very aware of what I am acquiring. Had to buy utensils and stuff for the kitchen. Food. A table to eat at. A bed to sleep on. A couch to lounge on during the day. What else? Not much really. We've acquired a few books but also have started taking advantage of the local library. Our place looks spacious and minimalist. We could definitely cram more stuff in. But I've come to realize, I suppose, that a home doesn't have to be a "showroom" for all your possessions. It can just be a place to live.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:32:57 -0800

Our house is 1000 square feet, and we do, indeed, have to watch the clutter. I do keep things at my mom's house--those scrapbooks and old photos and Grandma's secretary that I don't have room for. It constrains our hobbies; I'd love to have a table saw, but there's no room. The work bench is outside. We've gotten rid of tons of books (dunno, maybe literally tons). I mean, why do we really need books that we've already read and won't read again, when I work in a library and we have the internet? Can't have a stand mixer; don't have the room. Dining table chairs are nice foldable ones. Laundry dries in one shower, and the other was converted into shelf space. Yeah, it's a hassle, and we plant to move out at some point, but I walk to work every day, and we're near shops and cafes and all those great things one finds in cities.

By: Surfurrus

Surfurrus — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:12:36 -0800

They probably composted that stuff, or never collected it at all. Collecting is highly overrated. When I moved into my tiny space five years ago (it is described as a "tool shed" on my lease), I started mailing off my memories and collectibles to my children. In a way, it is quite freeing. I still keep books (up high), but I have drastically changed my ideas about what I really need to live happily. This is sort of like living on a boat -- or camping out every day. In fact, my best description is, "it is not so much a 'lowered style of living', but more like luxury camping -- I even have hot water and cable!" Great link, dobbs.

By: fidelity

fidelity — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:47:29 -0800

These styrofoam domes are 475 sq ft, weigh 175 lbs, and only take a few hours to assemble. Still nowhere to put all these books.

By: electroboy

electroboy — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:07:45 -0800

Note that most of those are described as "cabins" or "chalets", implying they're not actually meant for year round living.