The small house movement is going buck wild.  Some say it's because of a concern for the environment.  Others say it's because of the economy.  We could all say it's a confluence of both the economy and the environment, but what's important is that people actually rethink what a home can be — including how big it needs to be.  Just the other day, The Economist, published a story about two of the main players in the super small home genre, Tiny Texas Houses and Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.  We've mentioned Tumbleweed previously, but I learned something new about Tiny Texas Houses. 

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These days, you can't really attend a convention or exhibition unless there's a prefab and we think that's a great thing.  In this case, ideabox is at it again with a new iteration of their popular confluence prefab at the Portland Home & Garden Show.  If you're in the Pacific Northwest, go check it out through the 22nd of this month; if you're not, ideabox was nice enough to send us a few informal shots.  The 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom home has a tidy footprint, as well as updated detailing, Kohler fixtures, and Design Within Reach furnishings.  Simple living in a modern package …

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Taliesin Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture graduate and undergraduate students have been blogging on PrairieMod about their project to build a small modern home on the grounds of Taliesin West.  Now, the Mod.Fab is complete, and it’s a compelling demonstration of passive and active environmental control systems, water catchment, top-tier insulation, a gray water system, native landscaping, and a solar power system.

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This is the View Box green home plan by FreeGreen, a company we mentioned earlier with a similar house plan called the Smart Box.  Since we mentioned the Smart Box in May 2008, FreeGreen has been tearing it up with new green plans of all sorts of styles.  But not only are they expanding their selection of in-house plans, they’re also on Twitter and Allison Arieff gave them a NY Times shout out about a week ago.  Things are going well …

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This B-Line Small was designed by Hive Modular and completed within the last year.  Hive has a variety of home models in various sizes, and they can be designed with a flat or pitched roof.  As you can see here, this home features a pitched roof, which provides some passive benefits; the home maximizes southern exposure, sits lightly with a small, 1410 square-foot plan, and takes advantage of an urban infill lot.  In addition, the modern modular home has some other common green elements:

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