Architect Arthur Dyson is working with construction management students at Fresno State to create an unprecedented “Eco-Village” of tiny homes for homeless folks. The homes will be made of recycled materials – pallet flooring and framing, waterproofed cardboard walls, aluminum can roofing – and some donated materials from Lowe’s, according to The Fresno Bee.
Hot on the heels of our prior coverage of the Rainscreen Shed and the International Shed of the Year comes this solar-powered beauty, the Microhouse. According to Naomi Seldin of Simpler Living, the 100 square-foot tiny house is part of the Human = Landscape exhibit going on in City Hall Park in Burlington, Vermont. The Microhouse was built by Alex Carver and Christopher North of Northern Timbers Construction with the design help of landscape architect and metal artist H. Keith Wagner.
This month, (not so) Free Green added a payment structure to some of their offerings, but can you blame them? They’re providing high-quality home design for next to nothing! And with the roll out of this new structure, Free Green also introduced some tiny house plans that look pretty slick. You’re going to have to pay $19.95 / year to get the details, but here’s what we know. The tiny houses will be net zero energy homes with about 525 square feet of space and a bedroom and bathroom. Tell us which is your favorite:
In the news, there’s a lot of talk about process journalism and using a feedback loop to evolve stories. It made me think about iterative design and the potential role of blogs and new media to transform projects. Probably, one of the most interesting and current examples I can think of comes from Michael Janzen, who’s behind Tiny House Design, Nine Tiny Feet, and Tiny Free House, among other ventures. Using Google SketchUp, Janzen transformed a shed cluster (through comments, analysis, feedback, and subsequent iterations) into a sustainable dogtrot home. Check it out:
Elizabeth Turnbull was planning for Yale grad school and started estimating her future living expenses. As an incoming Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies student, Elizabeth calculated that she would spend ~$14,000 over two years of school and wanted to do something effective with that money. So she channeled a little inspiration from Tumbleweed Tiny House and decided to build her own tiny home as economically as possible.
So far, she’s made incredible progress building the 8′ x 18′ modish home on a flatbed trailer. By the time she’s done, the off-grid home will price out just over $11,000 or so. And it’s surprisingly spacious inside, too.
Project Profiles
