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Architect's Dream House: Less Than 200 Square Feet

213 points by RougeFemme 13y ago

ChuckMcM 13y ago
Nicely efficient use of space. Reminds me of a motor home (as opposed to a 'mobile home' which tries its best to avoid reminding you it is only 10' wide). I enjoyed the comment that read "I only need 200 sq ft to live in but I need 4000 sq ft for storage." :-)
- ghaff 13y ago
  Storage actually makes a huge difference. I wouldn't be especially into 200 sq. ft. in any case :-) but the difference between a house that has X sq. ft. of finished room with minimal storage--no basement, attic, maybe no garage--and a house that has one or more of those things is huge. To be sure, those spaces attract stuff that should just be unloaded, but it's a big difference.
platz 13y ago
Check out the tiny house blog
Casseres 13y ago
That's a great looking tiny house. If you're interested in seeing more and learning about other people's experiences building and living in tiny houses, I recommend checking out http://tinyhouseblog.com http://tinyhouseblog.com
akcreek 13y ago
200 sq ft would be hard for me personally, but mid-January I'm closing on a 375 sq ft building that I'm converting to a living space for myself, my wife and our dog. It will be short term for us while we restore the main building though... probably 18-24 months. After that it we'll use it as a guest house and I'll probably put it on Airbnb or similar as well. I've always wanted to live in a smaller space though so I'm excited. I'm used to about 1,000 sq ft, but we keep most of that empty really.
- Casseres 13y ago
  If one was confined to 200 sq ft, I would agree that it would be difficult to live in. I think the idea with most of these tiny houses, is that owners live more outdoors, and they move the tiny houses to the environment they want to live in.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - timmaah 13y ago
    My wife and I live in just under 200sq ft. No way we could do it if we weren't mobile. We would drive each other nuts. Warm enough weather that we can keep the door open is preferable. Just spent the last month in the middle of San Diego and now it is out to the desert.
- stirno 13y ago
  Super efficient apartments/small living spaces are very attractive to me. I've never tried actually calling one home though -- not very common where I live. How creative do you expect you'll have to get in a space that size?
  - akcreek 13y ago
    Probably not very as it really isn't all that small. It will basically be two rooms; the bathroom with shower, sink and toilet and then the living area with a bed that can be closed off to the rest of the room with a curtain or moveable wall. The rest of the room will be a small kitchen and living area. No laundry is planned so that makes it a bit easier and I don't have to store everything I own in the space. I will implement some storage solutions, but I'm not going to get crazy about it. Just simple things. Will probably end up something like the wee house layout wise, though not as modern in design: http://www.weehouse.com/wee/ http://www.weehouse.com/wee/ The building is pretty cool as it was originally an ice cream parlor in the 1950's. It was going to be demolished, but a group saved it and moved it to the current location and now I'm taking it over. I actually got the building for free since I bought the commercial building in front of it (well, negotiated it into the deal so I call it free). The commercial building was built in the 1860's and also saved by the same group. It is pretty unbelievable - has an arched doorway in the back where the horse/wagon pulled in with supplies for the general store and tavern that were in the ground floor. I'm going to finish out an apartment upstairs and have two commercial spaces downstairs - one for my business and one to lease out.
dhughes 13y ago
My aunt and I think eight or nine sibling grew up in this house https://maps.google.com/?ll=46.24838,-63.12407&spn=0.001167,0.002411&t=m&layer=c&cbll=46.248423,-63.123932&panoid=5LCBKNv5GdwogSFlCpYjYg&cbp=12,174.91,,0,17.74&z=19 https://maps.google.com/?ll=46.24838,-63.12407&spn=0.001167,...
- cipher0 13y ago
  "eight or nine"!! You don't know how many siblings you have bro?
  - jdeibele 13y ago
    Siblings of the aunt.
    - dhughes 13y ago
      To be fair I should have wrote that sentence a bit clearer, phone + cold fingers (-15C) + damn autocorrect + impulsiveness + poor spelling (her siblings) don't work in my favour.
choosewisely 13y ago
Great job given the space limitations, but something in the 400 sq feet would be more sustainable over the years. 200sq feet is just to small for me
samstave 13y ago
If you haven't seen the documentary "tiny house movement" watch it... Personally, I think these efforts lack an understanding of basic annoyances: Assume you want to sleep when others don't? Oh - the answer is this is for happy single people. Assume you overcook your steak and the whole place smokes up and your bedding now stinks. Assume you have more than (1) friend over. Have kids? I LOVE small/minimal spaces - but they are really not for the majority of people. They are too small cramped and inefficient for average living. Christ, my closet is bigger than that unit.
- platz 13y ago
  What about the RV folks, same criticisms?
  - timmaah 13y ago
    We live in 8x25'. The bedroom is separate enough for one to sleep while the other is awake. My wife and I's schedule is offset by about an hour or two. Give each other a bit of alone time. She also cooks 3 meals a day in our tiny kitchen. Nothing stinks afterwards.
- gaadd33 13y ago
  Somehow most people living in dense cities make do with a small amount of space. For example it's not uncommon to find 300sq ft apartments in Manhattan. Some people even manage to raise kids in such space. Look at places like Hong Kong and similar where small units are the norm and yet people seem to be able to live with the issues you mention.
  - nilkn 13y ago
    Some people live without a home at all. That doesn't mean it's a healthy way to raise kids.
    - gaadd33 13y ago
      Are you comparing living without a home to living in a small apartment in a major city? Given people seemed to raise kids and survive in 983 sq ft during the 1950s (average house size) I don't see why people think we need massive houses to raise children in today.
nostromo 13y ago
I think technology is the enabling factor behind the tiny house movement. Books, CDs, movies, photos, files, paperwork, videogames: all compressed down to the size of a hard drive. So many random gadgets have been replaced by a smart phone, like camera equipment, phones, flashlights, calendars, etc. Now people are ditching TVs as well and just using iPads and laptops to watch video. There are other more subtle things as well. For example, I haven't needed to iron a shirt in years because nice shirts come out of the dryer looking perfect. So no need for an iron or ironing board. Then there's service-economy-ification. Most of my neighbors don't mow their own lawn, none of them fix their own cars, and several don't even clean their own house. I wonder how many brew their own coffee? That's a huge amount of equipment that is no longer needed. When I lived in New York, literally 100% of my local friends used wash-and-fold and owned nothing to take care of clothing. A close friend of mine confessed recently that he hasn't prepared a real meal in years; his kitchen cabinets are nearly empty. The sharing economy is pushing this further. There's a tool-share co-op in my city for those things you need once-in-a-while, like a ladder. Car2Go and ZipCar mean people don't need 2 and 3 car garages at all anymore. I can't wait to get rid of more stuff!
- aaron695 13y ago
  > I think technology is the enabling factor behind the tiny house movement. Not totally, as others have mentioned our grandparents generation lived tiny as well. Technology allowed us to consume big but yes it'll allow us to go back tiny again by consuming efficiently.
  - rch 13y ago
    Yeah, but these days you can have an actual career and telecommute from a place where the land is still less than $1000 an acre.
- 001sky 13y ago
  When I lived in New York, literally 100% of my local friends used wash-and-fold and owned nothing to take care of clothing. Not to mention: don't have cars...
- 13y ago
officemonkey 13y ago
My sister, who lives in midtown Manhattan, lives in an apartment smaller than this place. If you're downsizing from a bigger place, you basically get rid of everything. I have 30+ wine glasses in my condo in Chicago. My sister has two. The other thing that happens in a tiny space: you end up buying quality. You will wait to find "just the right desk lamp" and then pay a premium for it.
- datasage 13y ago
  With space you end up buying so much stuff you may end up not really using, or buy low quality stuff just to fill the space.
  - officemonkey 13y ago
    I've got 30 lineal feet of bookshelves in my house that are filled with books I bought over the last 30 years. If I lived in my sister's house, I'd have to get rid of 80% of them. I could do that, but I don't have to, so I don't.
    - GuiA 13y ago
      Books are the one thing that a subgroup of hackers has a hard time parting with. I'm fairly minimalistic with all of my possessions, but books... man, I would have a really hard time getting rid of my library :(
      - officemonkey 13y ago
        I'm a lot more pragmatic. If Amazon told me they would give me an ebook version of each book I sent to them, I would immediately get rid of 90% of my books (everything except my coffee table books and a couple dozen books that hold sentimental value.)
- odoren 13y ago
  don't the minimum room size guidelines for apartments in the city prohibit such small living quarters?
Brakenshire 13y ago
This is fine in a warm country, or in a place where you're going to be in or out of your house all the time. Living in a cold and/or isolated place, being cooped up in such a small area would be unhealthy, you need to move around much more as a matter of course. Particularly if you're working at home, you'd have to be very proactive to avoid serious impacts on your health, because your lifestyle would be almost inherently sedentary. Exercise is not just doing a certain amount of cardio each week, you have to have movement interspersed throughout the day. I reckon you could have various different 'pods', though, rather than a standard house. A small space like this, then an isolated office room five minutes walk away, perhaps a cafe/communal eating area somewhere else ,and so on.
- protomyth 13y ago
  Whoever's down voting Brakenshire is down voting the truth. There are actual studies that show the point[1]. 1) and since I am 7 hours away from my office, I cannot point them out right now
- grannyg00se 13y ago
  I like that distributed space idea but if you're not in a warm climate that would be a serious annoyance. Who wants to go out in freezing weather to get to the kitchen? you could get your exercise interspersed throughout the day without leaving the tiny house.
- kaib 13y ago
  Having been raised in a cold and isolated country (Finland) I think you incorrectly assume that means a lot of time spent indoors. This can be true, but does not have to. I do think you are on to something with the idea of pods, most farmhouses where I come from are arranged in a number of small separate buildings.
  - sliverstorm 13y ago
    Sure you went outside plenty, but did you go outside at night? Personally, where I live, when the temperature drops below freezing at night, I stop going outside when it is dark, and as the nights get longer that means at least 14 hours a day indoors.
smrtinsert 13y ago
I think I saw this first on yahoo.com, but once on npr.org, top of hacker news!
voltagex_ 13y ago
I'm in a wheelchair. Brand new houses built with stairs make me sad. I've often thought I'd love to work with an architect to design accessible houses: it's not just for me, anyone with limited mobility or energy would benefit.
- 001sky 13y ago
  This is basically a mobile home, which has no foundation. As such, there is nothing in the design which is not easily re-built to your spec. The design is inherently modular. When you are dealing with a 200sq ft living space, its best to have it tailored to your own needs, and not a random or lowest common-denominator-based spec. The common areas, however take on more importance in a community or non-remote setting ans thus are the relevant areas to consider from an architecture perspective.
  - voltagex_ 13y ago
    Hey thanks, that's good to know.
  - mapt 13y ago
    "Tailored to your needs" "Not a random or lowest-common-denominator-based spec" So you want it to cost what a 1,200 sqft building would cost, but you want to spend it on architects and custom builders instead of cheap efficient standardized parts & designs. A wheelchair ramp, sure I guess... but the general principle of housing for most of us can't be "Find a way to occupy the unemployed architecture majors of the world".
    - 001sky 13y ago
      No, the house in the article was built for $11,000 dollars. That's the cost of provisioning about 5 square feet of London real estate. You're mis-reading be-tween the lines, by a couple orders of magnitude.
- nogridbag 13y ago
  Yes I agree. A family member is in a wheelchair/power chair and where I live, it's nearly impossible to find single level homes unless you build new. There home was recently modified with a $16,000 elevator and honestly it's barely accessible. A power chair just makes it into the elevator and there's absolutely no room to turn inside the lift. I wish there was more interest in accessible vehicles as well. Outside of the Kenguru which can't go up hills and is limited to 25MPH (since it's NEV) there aren't many other options which allows a power chair user to drive (without transferring).
SpacemanSpiff 13y ago
My wife and I live in a ~720 sq. foot loft we built inside of an airplane hangar. The story is here: http://www.makingthishome.com/hangar-loft-remodel/ http://www.makingthishome.com/hangar-loft-remodel/ We really love living in smaller spaces.
- franl 13y ago
  Wow, beautiful space!!
- dredmorbius 13y ago
  So ... I saw Katie's "Tire House" post. I've seen and read some of Mike Reynolds' work, but hadn't seen anyone specifically critical of the Earthship design. Is there a specific post which gets into the downsides of the mode of construction or do I have to read her whole blog to find out? http://www.makingthishome.com/2009/05/27/earthship-tour-aka-tire-house-tour/ http://www.makingthishome.com/2009/05/27/earthship-tour-aka-...
  - SpacemanSpiff 13y ago
    In a nutshell, we encountered two problems (which may or may not be prevalent with all Earthships) 1. Extreme temperature fluctuations. You're essentially living inside a solar collector. In the fall, the sun would blaze in through the windows, and I know you're supposed to have overhangs, shades and air vents and underground air circulation systems, all of which we used. The bottom line is you can't cheat physics. Even with the shades closed, the house is receiving over 300k BTU/hr of solar heat. This is just too much for any reasonably sized cooling system to handle. My infrared thermometer measured surface temperatures in excess of 140 deg. F on surfaces near the windows. In the winter, the same windows would leak heat like a sieve. Here in Montana when it's overcast, 10 deg. F, and the wind is blowing 30 mph the front of the house would barely reach 55 deg F. This was with the 30k BTU propane furnace going 100% duty cycle. I would work at my computer with long pants, a sweater, a blanket over my legs, and an electric heater blowing under the blanket :) The rear of the house is built into the hillside, so it would be warmer in the back, but you could never get the place past about about 65-68 in the winter no matter how much you tried. The sheer size of the front windows and lack of insulation again made the house design at odds with thermodynamics in my opinion. For the sake of comparison, our place in the hangar has ~R30 walls to the hangar, and again about ~R25 walls to the outside. We have in-floor radiant heat provided by our geothermal heat pump. Earlier this month when it was -20 deg. F outside we were toasty warm at 74 (we have a newborn child in the house now). And we were using significantly less energy to heat than at the Earthship. 2. Mice. The house construction methods are inherently porous, and mice have infiltrated the entire structure. They live in the cavities the walls form (and the roof supports), along the utility raceways in the ceiling, under cabinets, everywhere. I surmise that the mice have tunneled through the back of the hillside, between the tires, and up into the hollow cavities which support the ceiling. They then use this space to move around the inside of the house structure to other areas. No amount of trapping poisoning, etc. has slowed the onslaught of mice into the house. If the only way to prevent mice from infiltrating your supposedly green house is to use concrete in its construction and set outdoor poison traps which potentially kill hundreds of mice and may harm animals which then consume the poisoned mice, is this really such a green alternative? I've visited an Earthship being constructed in Big Sky Montana by Mike Reynolds this year. The design changes I've seen may partially address point 1, but as far as point 2 I'm not at all convinced that this new house will be any better. I admire his vision, and that he's been able to take his ideas so far. From an engineering standpoint, even taking into account the ecological footprint of the structure, I'm not convinced that his approach is the best when you look at the whole picture.
geuis 13y ago
If you're interested in learning more about this, I highly suggest subscribing to Kirsten Dirksen on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDsElQQt_gCZ9LgnW-7v-cQ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDsElQQt_gCZ9LgnW-7v-cQ She publishes new videos every couple weeks or so and is intimately tied into the tiny house movement. She also covers things involving alternate ways of living, diy, etc. Lovely person.
- macarthy12 13y ago
  Yeah she has a bunch of interesting videos on this.
alan_cx 13y ago
Take a look at this: http://www.cubeproject.org.uk/ http://www.cubeproject.org.uk/ Genius use of space. Saw it on a great UK TV show called George Clark's Amazing Spaces, where there are lots of brilliant creative ideas. Edit: Link to a brochure with a nice expanded drawing: http://www.boltonbuildings.co.uk/PDF/Cube.pdf http://www.boltonbuildings.co.uk/PDF/Cube.pdf
joshferg 13y ago
Should be retitled "Architect randomly decides to build a single-wide trailer home"
zephjc 13y ago
The subreddit /r/tinyhouses has lots of this sort of thing, and is a pretty good collation of various blogs and articles on the subject, with some pretty decent conversation.
- oceanician 13y ago
  http://www.reddit.com/r/tinyhouses http://www.reddit.com/r/tinyhouses
minimax 13y ago
What is the difference between this and a single wide trailer home?
- garrettgrimsley 13y ago
  This home is far smaller than the average single-wide. I looked around online for floor plans and it appears that the smallest plans available are 600sqft or larger. http://www.mheinc.com/singlewide.htm http://www.mheinc.com/singlewide.htm http://www.solitairehomes.com/models/single-wide/floorplans.aspx http://www.solitairehomes.com/models/single-wide/floorplans.... I'm also a delivery driver with a large (>200 unit) trailer park nearby and none of the homes come close to being this small. Additionally you will note that the trailer that the tiny house is situated on has a fifth wheel for being pulled by a truck, while a single-wide typically will be on a platform with a conventional style hitch.
  - minimax 13y ago
    Good points. Thanks!
- qwerta 13y ago
  This makes people 'trendy', trailer makes people 'white trash'? Personally I see no difference between this house and trailer.
- qbrass 13y ago
  This is closer in size to a travel trailer.
z92 13y ago
The difference is 'Family'. Inevitably you will need to have a partner and say, four children, for the human race to survive. At that point you have to go the traditional route.
- PhasmaFelis 13y ago
  There are many, many, many people producing children at well above replacement levels, and we are already well above the carrying capacity of our environment. I have no personal guilt at choosing not to have children.
  - drivingmissm 13y ago
    Actually most advanced societies are not producing enough children to keep the population stable.
    - nilved 13y ago
      Which is a very good thing.
      - Goronmon 13y ago
        Is it? Advanced society's dying off isn't something people usual celebrate.
        nilved 13y ago
        Nobody said dying off, but it's a well-understood fact that humanity is growing at an unsustainable rate.
    - philwelch 13y ago
      But they're importing enough immigrants to more than make up the difference.
    - PhasmaFelis 13y ago
yachtintransit 13y ago
I find a 37ft sail boat fits my needs completely. Some added benefits: relocatable, scenery and built in furniture.
yachtintransit 13y ago
I find a 37ft sail boat fits my needs completely. Some added benefits: relocatable, scenery and built in furniture.
yachtintransit 13y ago
I find a 37ft sail boat fits my needs completely. Some added benefits: relocatable, scenery and built in furniture.
treenyc 13y ago
If you guys like this, then make sure to look at an interview with Marcin Jakubowski the founder of Open Source Ecology. He said that you can build your own house for $2000 dollar. I can't find that report now, but here is a link to their discussion form. http://forum.opensourceecology.org/discussion/903/building-a-house/p1 http://forum.opensourceecology.org/discussion/903/building-a... they even open source the design to build your own brick presser.
- treenyc 13y ago
  here is more detail. It is called a OSE Microhouse http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/OSE_Microhouse http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/OSE_Microhouse
cturner 13y ago
I like the idea of efficient space and less to keep clean. But I want a well-stocked lab at home: toolboxes, musical instruments, books, hardware projects, cooking equipment. Piles of junk are hard to clean around. I've been thinking that a 'compactus' unit like this might serve all needs: http://www.officecentre.com.au/prod1129.htm http://www.officecentre.com.au/prod1129.htm You could probably get it installed to house servers in the end-units.
flexie 13y ago
Cute little cabin and amazing what you can put into 20 m2. And it must be nice to know that you've built it yourself. But I don't believe for a second that this is the architect's dream house. Come on. It's like saying that a static blog is a programmer's dream project. She may have had a dream one night about living in a small house but I am sure that as soon as she can afford to, she will move into something bigger. Let's not kid ourselves :-)
- N2tommy 13y ago
  There is at least one serious disadvantage to her house, and that is: when she cooks, the ventilation will be poor, plus her clothes and "bedroom" are way too close.
- drivingmissm 13y ago
  Yeah it is just a tricked out mobile home.
  - hsitz 13y ago
    Actually, no, it's not just a tricked out mobile home. Apart from size, it's constructed like most regular homes, but even higher quality. Most tiny houses are built using stick framing, same as regular houses, with 6" exterior walls and lots of insulation (higher insulation level than most regular homes), have level of interior trim that is similar to but usually better than regular homes. Also most tiny houses are built so at least part of structure has very high ceilings, 11 to 12 feet, which greatly adds to feeling of spaciousness. Tiny homes cost much more per square foot than regular size homes, but of course are much cheaper overall. Even though they're usually built on wheeled trailers and can be moved, they're not built for constant moving. In short, tiny homes are built to "feel" like a regular home, even though much smaller. Mobile homes, in contrast, are not, generally feel cheap and light, much different experience.
mojuba 13y ago
Just one small correction. The cost of a house like this is $11,000 + the money she never made because of her own time (18 months!) invested in construction. So the total, strictly speaking, is way way higher than $11k.
sifarat 13y ago
I am going against the wind. It's not only stupid but also ugly. Having your bedroom near or inside a kitchen is a total chaos. >I think technology is the enabling factor behind the tiny house movement. Technology has helped most persons own a 'palace' which was only possible for super-rich in the past, due to lack of 'economical' technology and advancements.
design-of-homes 13y ago
The house is lovely, but...tiny homes in the US are mostly detached and surrounded by wide open spaces or have long views out of the windows. They also have plenty of natural light. These factors don't make the homes feel tiny. The real challenge for most cities is to build high-density housing where you might not have pleasant long views out of your window or lots of natural light. Higher-density housing doesn't mean high-rise, but it probably won't include building (many) detached homes. Apartments and terraced (row) houses are more suited to high-density developments. Could you still live in a 200 square feet home if it was a single-aspect apartment in an apartment block? (Single aspect = windows along just one side of the apartment compared to a double-aspect apartment with windows at the front and back of the apartment). Or could you live in an equivalent tiny terraced house? Just for comparison, London now has minimum space standards for new homes (but England and Wales do not). A one bedroom apartment for two people must be a minimum of 50 square metres (538 square feet). In Germany, the equivalent apartment is 60 square metres. http://designofhomes.co.uk/images/046/space-standards-london-vs-germany.png http://designofhomes.co.uk/images/046/space-standards-london... To me these spaces are modest in size rather that palatial but space is relative and we all have different ideas of what tiny, small or large mean to us depending on where we live. New build homes in the UK tend to be the smallest in Europe and the quality of many new build homes is poor. Here's a comparison of the average size of new homes in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands and Denmark: http://www.withoutspaceandlight.com/resources/img/space/comparison.png http://www.withoutspaceandlight.com/resources/img/space/comp...
- hindsightbias 13y ago
  Here's a US architect that I think is more realistic towards downsizing: http://rosschapin.com/Plans/plans.html http://rosschapin.com/Plans/plans.html
afterburner 13y ago
Is this to get people used to rising real estate costs?
viame 13y ago
You can compress these things and a lot of people have, but to live like this is another story. I myself build homes, apartments, I also design kitchens, did flips, and I can tell you that I have not met one person that could live in a tiny box like that. Yes, it is a dream of everyone, to be very simple and live like this, but this is not going to happen. She moved from 2,500sqft to 200sqft, why? You don't wake up one day and do that unless you cannot afford living in a house, and I don't care what she says. Maybe it's her cottage or trailer, I really don't know, but don't believe anything they say on the news. A lot of people would go insane in a 200sqft space. It's like a cell. If anyone wants to try, please come live in my shed. It's very minimalistic, raw, super nice like this place. :)
- JoeAltmaier 13y ago
  Agreed. Stunts like this are done by design students; what evidence that anyone lives in it, for any significant amount of time? I've had a strange notion recently, that these things are actually not helpful in the larger scheme of things. Some creative person goes an lives in a shoebox; no room to design or socialize or have a hobby or even bring work home. Now we've taken a productive person out of society and turned them into a hermit. How does that help? It seems selfish at some level.
  - untothebreach 13y ago
    This woman seems to do ok: http://rowdykittens.com/ http://rowdykittens.com/
  - walshemj 13y ago
    Octu in a capsule hotel sounds like hell on earth
- driverdan 13y ago
  > I have not met one person that could live in a tiny box like that What's wrong with the people you've met? If they're single there's no reason they couldn't live in a place like that. They don't need most of the junk they own and could get along just fine in a small home.
oceanician 13y ago
I've debating about doing this in the UK with a 32ft shipping container, and possibly straw bail externally for insulation, and a water collector on the roof for grey usage. Seen some great projects in London & Brighton, but non in Manchester for homes yet. Though there's been a great use for offices in the Sharp project. Anyone else in the UK looking at this sort of thing? One question: Why the wheels if you're only going to move it every so often - say a couple of years?
shawnee_ 13y ago
Living small(er) in order to minimize carbon footprint makes sense. Green Metropolis by David Owen is a fantastic book that makes the case for Manhattan being a great blueprint for the ideal city of the future -- people living more densely = less energy use individually & less "space" to accumulate stuff and waste. Trash disposal in the city is such a complex problem that residents are literally forced to be economical about their consumption habits. Traditional concepts of homesteading on the plains, whether with large ranch houses or an "eco" house made of straw and mud are not necessarily ecologically friendly when there's imperative need to drive to get to the nearest urban area for work, school, shopping, etc -- these, he argues, are the antithesis of efficiency. Small eco-homes are not just a trend; they are the new era in real estate development. But they need to be built such that they can collectively share infrastructures the same way city residents do. The project I'm working on, applied to YC with (and was rejected from) last batch is built on this idea of more ecological homesteading in order to create better urban planning. Masdar City http://www.masdarcity.ae/en/ http://www.masdarcity.ae/en/ is an interesting prototype for the future of cities. We've schooled our youngins enough for them to know that ecological awareness needs to be a lifestyle. They're surprisingly aware that the world they are inheriting has exponential population growth, limited resources, and that the "industrial revolution" model of economic viability just isn't going to work forever they way it has been working.
infinotize 13y ago
Is there anyone on HN who doesn't aspire to the minimalist, tiny (usually urban) home, outsourced lifestyle (by that I mean, laundry service, car rental, eat out vs cooking, etc)? I'm genuinely curious.
- ghaff 13y ago
  I'm sure lots don't. I see the attraction of an urban lifestyle but I also like the space and quiet of where I live in the country--and the ability to hop in the car and go somewhere with canoe, skis, etc. (And I enjoy cooking. I travel a lot and find that having to eat out gets old after a while.)
- dsr_ 13y ago
  Hi. The only part of that grouping I'm interested in is "urban". When you get enough people close together, you can do things that are otherwise unprofitable. I live in a fairly large house on a road with real bus service that connects me to Cambridge, the Boston MBTA, and a commuter rail in and out. That means that we can get along with one car instead of two. We do our own laundry, cook most meals from scratch, and keep multiple cats. We have a standing arrangement with a housekeeper to help clean our house a few times a month. My chief desire is to be comfortable, not to live a life of ascetic minimalism, aesthetic cleanliness, or meditative contemplation. There are books in every room in the house. There is always a computing device with internet access within a few steps. We have space for Lego, toys, hobbies and tools. I understand how someone who lives alone might want to be in a tiny space -- because they don't really live there, they live outside the house anyway. But that's not what I want, and it's not what I have.
- handzhiev 13y ago
  Yes. I like being self-sufficient, having a garden, doing cooking, woodworking, and a lot of stuff on my own.
apunic 13y ago
Macy Miller's Tiny House is the trend but there are way nicer implementations for just double the price: http://www.ecospacestudios.com/ http://www.ecospacestudios.com/
squozzer 13y ago
I like this idea a little better -- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/9243318/Container-living-a-home-for-under-50000.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/9243318/Container-living...
BadassFractal 13y ago
I'd totally live in a 200sqft apt in SF if someone were to offer one this well thought-out.
allochthon 13y ago
I love that she designed and built the house herself, and I love that she did a great job on the interior design. I also like that there's a little bit of yard (perhaps a lot -- hard to tell from the photo). I like the 200 sq. foot size a little less. My own dream homes (there are two): 1. A small home (> 200 sq. feet) or perhaps unit in a larger condominium complex or communal living space in a denser urban conglomeration. The town/city is not so large that you cannot easily walk or ride a bike through the length of it. Lots of trees and green space. Light rail transportation to nearby urban areas. Not as dense as SF or anywhere near as dense as Manhattan. But not so suburban that you need a car. Building height is kept at or below five stories, and averages two stories. The buildings do not block sunlight. There are places at the edge of the town/city for long-term car storage, but driving is not permitted within it. 2. A nice cabin or ranchouse (~1000-2000 sq. feet?) in the countryside with access to light rail within biking distance.

213 points by RougeFemme 13y ago

Nicely efficient use of space. Reminds me of a motor home (as opposed to a 'mobile home' which tries its best to avoid reminding you it is only 10' wide). I enjoyed the comment that read "I only need 200 sq ft to live in but I need 4000 sq ft for storage." :-)

ghaff 13y ago
Storage actually makes a huge difference. I wouldn't be especially into 200 sq. ft. in any case :-) but the difference between a house that has X sq. ft. of finished room with minimal storage--no basement, attic, maybe no garage--and a house that has one or more of those things is huge. To be sure, those spaces attract stuff that should just be unloaded, but it's a big difference.

platz 13y ago

Check out the tiny house blog

Casseres 13y ago

That's a great looking tiny house. If you're interested in seeing more and learning about other people's experiences building and living in tiny houses, I recommend checking out http://tinyhouseblog.com http://tinyhouseblog.com

akcreek 13y ago

200 sq ft would be hard for me personally, but mid-January I'm closing on a 375 sq ft building that I'm converting to a living space for myself, my wife and our dog. It will be short term for us while we restore the main building though... probably 18-24 months. After that it we'll use it as a guest house and I'll probably put it on Airbnb or similar as well. I've always wanted to live in a smaller space though so I'm excited. I'm used to about 1,000 sq ft, but we keep most of that empty really.

Casseres 13y ago
If one was confined to 200 sq ft, I would agree that it would be difficult to live in. I think the idea with most of these tiny houses, is that owners live more outdoors, and they move the tiny houses to the environment they want to live in.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- timmaah 13y ago
  My wife and I live in just under 200sq ft. No way we could do it if we weren't mobile. We would drive each other nuts. Warm enough weather that we can keep the door open is preferable. Just spent the last month in the middle of San Diego and now it is out to the desert.
stirno 13y ago
Super efficient apartments/small living spaces are very attractive to me. I've never tried actually calling one home though -- not very common where I live. How creative do you expect you'll have to get in a space that size?
- akcreek 13y ago
  Probably not very as it really isn't all that small. It will basically be two rooms; the bathroom with shower, sink and toilet and then the living area with a bed that can be closed off to the rest of the room with a curtain or moveable wall. The rest of the room will be a small kitchen and living area. No laundry is planned so that makes it a bit easier and I don't have to store everything I own in the space. I will implement some storage solutions, but I'm not going to get crazy about it. Just simple things. Will probably end up something like the wee house layout wise, though not as modern in design: http://www.weehouse.com/wee/ http://www.weehouse.com/wee/ The building is pretty cool as it was originally an ice cream parlor in the 1950's. It was going to be demolished, but a group saved it and moved it to the current location and now I'm taking it over. I actually got the building for free since I bought the commercial building in front of it (well, negotiated it into the deal so I call it free). The commercial building was built in the 1860's and also saved by the same group. It is pretty unbelievable - has an arched doorway in the back where the horse/wagon pulled in with supplies for the general store and tavern that were in the ground floor. I'm going to finish out an apartment upstairs and have two commercial spaces downstairs - one for my business and one to lease out.

dhughes 13y ago

My aunt and I think eight or nine sibling grew up in this house https://maps.google.com/?ll=46.24838,-63.12407&spn=0.001167,0.002411&t=m&layer=c&cbll=46.248423,-63.123932&panoid=5LCBKNv5GdwogSFlCpYjYg&cbp=12,174.91,,0,17.74&z=19 https://maps.google.com/?ll=46.24838,-63.12407&spn=0.001167,...

cipher0 13y ago
"eight or nine"!! You don't know how many siblings you have bro?
- jdeibele 13y ago
  Siblings of the aunt.
  - dhughes 13y ago
    To be fair I should have wrote that sentence a bit clearer, phone + cold fingers (-15C) + damn autocorrect + impulsiveness + poor spelling (her siblings) don't work in my favour.

choosewisely 13y ago

Great job given the space limitations, but something in the 400 sq feet would be more sustainable over the years. 200sq feet is just to small for me

samstave 13y ago

If you haven't seen the documentary "tiny house movement" watch it... Personally, I think these efforts lack an understanding of basic annoyances: Assume you want to sleep when others don't? Oh - the answer is this is for happy single people. Assume you overcook your steak and the whole place smokes up and your bedding now stinks. Assume you have more than (1) friend over. Have kids? I LOVE small/minimal spaces - but they are really not for the majority of people. They are too small cramped and inefficient for average living. Christ, my closet is bigger than that unit.

platz 13y ago
What about the RV folks, same criticisms?
- timmaah 13y ago
  We live in 8x25'. The bedroom is separate enough for one to sleep while the other is awake. My wife and I's schedule is offset by about an hour or two. Give each other a bit of alone time. She also cooks 3 meals a day in our tiny kitchen. Nothing stinks afterwards.
gaadd33 13y ago
Somehow most people living in dense cities make do with a small amount of space. For example it's not uncommon to find 300sq ft apartments in Manhattan. Some people even manage to raise kids in such space. Look at places like Hong Kong and similar where small units are the norm and yet people seem to be able to live with the issues you mention.
- nilkn 13y ago
  Some people live without a home at all. That doesn't mean it's a healthy way to raise kids.
  - gaadd33 13y ago
    Are you comparing living without a home to living in a small apartment in a major city? Given people seemed to raise kids and survive in 983 sq ft during the 1950s (average house size) I don't see why people think we need massive houses to raise children in today.

nostromo 13y ago

I think technology is the enabling factor behind the tiny house movement. Books, CDs, movies, photos, files, paperwork, videogames: all compressed down to the size of a hard drive. So many random gadgets have been replaced by a smart phone, like camera equipment, phones, flashlights, calendars, etc. Now people are ditching TVs as well and just using iPads and laptops to watch video. There are other more subtle things as well. For example, I haven't needed to iron a shirt in years because nice shirts come out of the dryer looking perfect. So no need for an iron or ironing board. Then there's service-economy-ification. Most of my neighbors don't mow their own lawn, none of them fix their own cars, and several don't even clean their own house. I wonder how many brew their own coffee? That's a huge amount of equipment that is no longer needed. When I lived in New York, literally 100% of my local friends used wash-and-fold and owned nothing to take care of clothing. A close friend of mine confessed recently that he hasn't prepared a real meal in years; his kitchen cabinets are nearly empty. The sharing economy is pushing this further. There's a tool-share co-op in my city for those things you need once-in-a-while, like a ladder. Car2Go and ZipCar mean people don't need 2 and 3 car garages at all anymore. I can't wait to get rid of more stuff!

aaron695 13y ago
> I think technology is the enabling factor behind the tiny house movement. Not totally, as others have mentioned our grandparents generation lived tiny as well. Technology allowed us to consume big but yes it'll allow us to go back tiny again by consuming efficiently.
- rch 13y ago
  Yeah, but these days you can have an actual career and telecommute from a place where the land is still less than $1000 an acre.
001sky 13y ago
When I lived in New York, literally 100% of my local friends used wash-and-fold and owned nothing to take care of clothing. Not to mention: don't have cars...
13y ago

officemonkey 13y ago

My sister, who lives in midtown Manhattan, lives in an apartment smaller than this place. If you're downsizing from a bigger place, you basically get rid of everything. I have 30+ wine glasses in my condo in Chicago. My sister has two. The other thing that happens in a tiny space: you end up buying quality. You will wait to find "just the right desk lamp" and then pay a premium for it.

datasage 13y ago
With space you end up buying so much stuff you may end up not really using, or buy low quality stuff just to fill the space.
- officemonkey 13y ago
  I've got 30 lineal feet of bookshelves in my house that are filled with books I bought over the last 30 years. If I lived in my sister's house, I'd have to get rid of 80% of them. I could do that, but I don't have to, so I don't.
  - GuiA 13y ago
    Books are the one thing that a subgroup of hackers has a hard time parting with. I'm fairly minimalistic with all of my possessions, but books... man, I would have a really hard time getting rid of my library :(
    - officemonkey 13y ago
      I'm a lot more pragmatic. If Amazon told me they would give me an ebook version of each book I sent to them, I would immediately get rid of 90% of my books (everything except my coffee table books and a couple dozen books that hold sentimental value.)
odoren 13y ago
don't the minimum room size guidelines for apartments in the city prohibit such small living quarters?

Brakenshire 13y ago

This is fine in a warm country, or in a place where you're going to be in or out of your house all the time. Living in a cold and/or isolated place, being cooped up in such a small area would be unhealthy, you need to move around much more as a matter of course. Particularly if you're working at home, you'd have to be very proactive to avoid serious impacts on your health, because your lifestyle would be almost inherently sedentary. Exercise is not just doing a certain amount of cardio each week, you have to have movement interspersed throughout the day. I reckon you could have various different 'pods', though, rather than a standard house. A small space like this, then an isolated office room five minutes walk away, perhaps a cafe/communal eating area somewhere else ,and so on.

protomyth 13y ago
Whoever's down voting Brakenshire is down voting the truth. There are actual studies that show the point[1]. 1) and since I am 7 hours away from my office, I cannot point them out right now
grannyg00se 13y ago
I like that distributed space idea but if you're not in a warm climate that would be a serious annoyance. Who wants to go out in freezing weather to get to the kitchen? you could get your exercise interspersed throughout the day without leaving the tiny house.
kaib 13y ago
Having been raised in a cold and isolated country (Finland) I think you incorrectly assume that means a lot of time spent indoors. This can be true, but does not have to. I do think you are on to something with the idea of pods, most farmhouses where I come from are arranged in a number of small separate buildings.
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  Sure you went outside plenty, but did you go outside at night? Personally, where I live, when the temperature drops below freezing at night, I stop going outside when it is dark, and as the nights get longer that means at least 14 hours a day indoors.

smrtinsert 13y ago

I think I saw this first on yahoo.com, but once on npr.org, top of hacker news!

voltagex_ 13y ago

I'm in a wheelchair. Brand new houses built with stairs make me sad. I've often thought I'd love to work with an architect to design accessible houses: it's not just for me, anyone with limited mobility or energy would benefit.

001sky 13y ago
This is basically a mobile home, which has no foundation. As such, there is nothing in the design which is not easily re-built to your spec. The design is inherently modular. When you are dealing with a 200sq ft living space, its best to have it tailored to your own needs, and not a random or lowest common-denominator-based spec. The common areas, however take on more importance in a community or non-remote setting ans thus are the relevant areas to consider from an architecture perspective.
- voltagex_ 13y ago
  Hey thanks, that's good to know.
- mapt 13y ago
  "Tailored to your needs" "Not a random or lowest-common-denominator-based spec" So you want it to cost what a 1,200 sqft building would cost, but you want to spend it on architects and custom builders instead of cheap efficient standardized parts & designs. A wheelchair ramp, sure I guess... but the general principle of housing for most of us can't be "Find a way to occupy the unemployed architecture majors of the world".
  - 001sky 13y ago
    No, the house in the article was built for $11,000 dollars. That's the cost of provisioning about 5 square feet of London real estate. You're mis-reading be-tween the lines, by a couple orders of magnitude.
nogridbag 13y ago
Yes I agree. A family member is in a wheelchair/power chair and where I live, it's nearly impossible to find single level homes unless you build new. There home was recently modified with a $16,000 elevator and honestly it's barely accessible. A power chair just makes it into the elevator and there's absolutely no room to turn inside the lift. I wish there was more interest in accessible vehicles as well. Outside of the Kenguru which can't go up hills and is limited to 25MPH (since it's NEV) there aren't many other options which allows a power chair user to drive (without transferring).

SpacemanSpiff 13y ago

My wife and I live in a ~720 sq. foot loft we built inside of an airplane hangar. The story is here: http://www.makingthishome.com/hangar-loft-remodel/ http://www.makingthishome.com/hangar-loft-remodel/ We really love living in smaller spaces.

franl 13y ago
Wow, beautiful space!!
dredmorbius 13y ago
So ... I saw Katie's "Tire House" post. I've seen and read some of Mike Reynolds' work, but hadn't seen anyone specifically critical of the Earthship design. Is there a specific post which gets into the downsides of the mode of construction or do I have to read her whole blog to find out? http://www.makingthishome.com/2009/05/27/earthship-tour-aka-tire-house-tour/ http://www.makingthishome.com/2009/05/27/earthship-tour-aka-...
- SpacemanSpiff 13y ago
  In a nutshell, we encountered two problems (which may or may not be prevalent with all Earthships) 1. Extreme temperature fluctuations. You're essentially living inside a solar collector. In the fall, the sun would blaze in through the windows, and I know you're supposed to have overhangs, shades and air vents and underground air circulation systems, all of which we used. The bottom line is you can't cheat physics. Even with the shades closed, the house is receiving over 300k BTU/hr of solar heat. This is just too much for any reasonably sized cooling system to handle. My infrared thermometer measured surface temperatures in excess of 140 deg. F on surfaces near the windows. In the winter, the same windows would leak heat like a sieve. Here in Montana when it's overcast, 10 deg. F, and the wind is blowing 30 mph the front of the house would barely reach 55 deg F. This was with the 30k BTU propane furnace going 100% duty cycle. I would work at my computer with long pants, a sweater, a blanket over my legs, and an electric heater blowing under the blanket :) The rear of the house is built into the hillside, so it would be warmer in the back, but you could never get the place past about about 65-68 in the winter no matter how much you tried. The sheer size of the front windows and lack of insulation again made the house design at odds with thermodynamics in my opinion. For the sake of comparison, our place in the hangar has ~R30 walls to the hangar, and again about ~R25 walls to the outside. We have in-floor radiant heat provided by our geothermal heat pump. Earlier this month when it was -20 deg. F outside we were toasty warm at 74 (we have a newborn child in the house now). And we were using significantly less energy to heat than at the Earthship. 2. Mice. The house construction methods are inherently porous, and mice have infiltrated the entire structure. They live in the cavities the walls form (and the roof supports), along the utility raceways in the ceiling, under cabinets, everywhere. I surmise that the mice have tunneled through the back of the hillside, between the tires, and up into the hollow cavities which support the ceiling. They then use this space to move around the inside of the house structure to other areas. No amount of trapping poisoning, etc. has slowed the onslaught of mice into the house. If the only way to prevent mice from infiltrating your supposedly green house is to use concrete in its construction and set outdoor poison traps which potentially kill hundreds of mice and may harm animals which then consume the poisoned mice, is this really such a green alternative? I've visited an Earthship being constructed in Big Sky Montana by Mike Reynolds this year. The design changes I've seen may partially address point 1, but as far as point 2 I'm not at all convinced that this new house will be any better. I admire his vision, and that he's been able to take his ideas so far. From an engineering standpoint, even taking into account the ecological footprint of the structure, I'm not convinced that his approach is the best when you look at the whole picture.

geuis 13y ago

If you're interested in learning more about this, I highly suggest subscribing to Kirsten Dirksen on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDsElQQt_gCZ9LgnW-7v-cQ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDsElQQt_gCZ9LgnW-7v-cQ She publishes new videos every couple weeks or so and is intimately tied into the tiny house movement. She also covers things involving alternate ways of living, diy, etc. Lovely person.

macarthy12 13y ago
Yeah she has a bunch of interesting videos on this.

alan_cx 13y ago

Take a look at this: http://www.cubeproject.org.uk/ http://www.cubeproject.org.uk/ Genius use of space. Saw it on a great UK TV show called George Clark's Amazing Spaces, where there are lots of brilliant creative ideas. Edit: Link to a brochure with a nice expanded drawing: http://www.boltonbuildings.co.uk/PDF/Cube.pdf http://www.boltonbuildings.co.uk/PDF/Cube.pdf

joshferg 13y ago

Should be retitled "Architect randomly decides to build a single-wide trailer home"

zephjc 13y ago

The subreddit /r/tinyhouses has lots of this sort of thing, and is a pretty good collation of various blogs and articles on the subject, with some pretty decent conversation.

oceanician 13y ago
http://www.reddit.com/r/tinyhouses http://www.reddit.com/r/tinyhouses

minimax 13y ago

What is the difference between this and a single wide trailer home?

garrettgrimsley 13y ago
This home is far smaller than the average single-wide. I looked around online for floor plans and it appears that the smallest plans available are 600sqft or larger. http://www.mheinc.com/singlewide.htm http://www.mheinc.com/singlewide.htm http://www.solitairehomes.com/models/single-wide/floorplans.aspx http://www.solitairehomes.com/models/single-wide/floorplans.... I'm also a delivery driver with a large (>200 unit) trailer park nearby and none of the homes come close to being this small. Additionally you will note that the trailer that the tiny house is situated on has a fifth wheel for being pulled by a truck, while a single-wide typically will be on a platform with a conventional style hitch.
- minimax 13y ago
  Good points. Thanks!
qwerta 13y ago
This makes people 'trendy', trailer makes people 'white trash'? Personally I see no difference between this house and trailer.
qbrass 13y ago
This is closer in size to a travel trailer.

z92 13y ago

The difference is 'Family'. Inevitably you will need to have a partner and say, four children, for the human race to survive. At that point you have to go the traditional route.

PhasmaFelis 13y ago
There are many, many, many people producing children at well above replacement levels, and we are already well above the carrying capacity of our environment. I have no personal guilt at choosing not to have children.
- drivingmissm 13y ago
  Actually most advanced societies are not producing enough children to keep the population stable.
  - nilved 13y ago
    Which is a very good thing.
    - Goronmon 13y ago
      Is it? Advanced society's dying off isn't something people usual celebrate.
      - nilved 13y ago
        Nobody said dying off, but it's a well-understood fact that humanity is growing at an unsustainable rate.
  - philwelch 13y ago
    But they're importing enough immigrants to more than make up the difference.
  - PhasmaFelis 13y ago

yachtintransit 13y ago

I find a 37ft sail boat fits my needs completely. Some added benefits: relocatable, scenery and built in furniture.

yachtintransit 13y ago

I find a 37ft sail boat fits my needs completely. Some added benefits: relocatable, scenery and built in furniture.

yachtintransit 13y ago

I find a 37ft sail boat fits my needs completely. Some added benefits: relocatable, scenery and built in furniture.

treenyc 13y ago

If you guys like this, then make sure to look at an interview with Marcin Jakubowski the founder of Open Source Ecology. He said that you can build your own house for $2000 dollar. I can't find that report now, but here is a link to their discussion form. http://forum.opensourceecology.org/discussion/903/building-a-house/p1 http://forum.opensourceecology.org/discussion/903/building-a... they even open source the design to build your own brick presser.

treenyc 13y ago
here is more detail. It is called a OSE Microhouse http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/OSE_Microhouse http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/OSE_Microhouse

cturner 13y ago

I like the idea of efficient space and less to keep clean. But I want a well-stocked lab at home: toolboxes, musical instruments, books, hardware projects, cooking equipment. Piles of junk are hard to clean around. I've been thinking that a 'compactus' unit like this might serve all needs: http://www.officecentre.com.au/prod1129.htm http://www.officecentre.com.au/prod1129.htm You could probably get it installed to house servers in the end-units.

flexie 13y ago

Cute little cabin and amazing what you can put into 20 m2. And it must be nice to know that you've built it yourself. But I don't believe for a second that this is the architect's dream house. Come on. It's like saying that a static blog is a programmer's dream project. She may have had a dream one night about living in a small house but I am sure that as soon as she can afford to, she will move into something bigger. Let's not kid ourselves :-)

N2tommy 13y ago
There is at least one serious disadvantage to her house, and that is: when she cooks, the ventilation will be poor, plus her clothes and "bedroom" are way too close.
drivingmissm 13y ago
Yeah it is just a tricked out mobile home.
- hsitz 13y ago
  Actually, no, it's not just a tricked out mobile home. Apart from size, it's constructed like most regular homes, but even higher quality. Most tiny houses are built using stick framing, same as regular houses, with 6" exterior walls and lots of insulation (higher insulation level than most regular homes), have level of interior trim that is similar to but usually better than regular homes. Also most tiny houses are built so at least part of structure has very high ceilings, 11 to 12 feet, which greatly adds to feeling of spaciousness. Tiny homes cost much more per square foot than regular size homes, but of course are much cheaper overall. Even though they're usually built on wheeled trailers and can be moved, they're not built for constant moving. In short, tiny homes are built to "feel" like a regular home, even though much smaller. Mobile homes, in contrast, are not, generally feel cheap and light, much different experience.

mojuba 13y ago

Just one small correction. The cost of a house like this is $11,000 + the money she never made because of her own time (18 months!) invested in construction. So the total, strictly speaking, is way way higher than $11k.

sifarat 13y ago

I am going against the wind. It's not only stupid but also ugly. Having your bedroom near or inside a kitchen is a total chaos. >I think technology is the enabling factor behind the tiny house movement. Technology has helped most persons own a 'palace' which was only possible for super-rich in the past, due to lack of 'economical' technology and advancements.

design-of-homes 13y ago

The house is lovely, but...tiny homes in the US are mostly detached and surrounded by wide open spaces or have long views out of the windows. They also have plenty of natural light. These factors don't make the homes feel tiny. The real challenge for most cities is to build high-density housing where you might not have pleasant long views out of your window or lots of natural light. Higher-density housing doesn't mean high-rise, but it probably won't include building (many) detached homes. Apartments and terraced (row) houses are more suited to high-density developments. Could you still live in a 200 square feet home if it was a single-aspect apartment in an apartment block? (Single aspect = windows along just one side of the apartment compared to a double-aspect apartment with windows at the front and back of the apartment). Or could you live in an equivalent tiny terraced house? Just for comparison, London now has minimum space standards for new homes (but England and Wales do not). A one bedroom apartment for two people must be a minimum of 50 square metres (538 square feet). In Germany, the equivalent apartment is 60 square metres. http://designofhomes.co.uk/images/046/space-standards-london-vs-germany.png http://designofhomes.co.uk/images/046/space-standards-london... To me these spaces are modest in size rather that palatial but space is relative and we all have different ideas of what tiny, small or large mean to us depending on where we live. New build homes in the UK tend to be the smallest in Europe and the quality of many new build homes is poor. Here's a comparison of the average size of new homes in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands and Denmark: http://www.withoutspaceandlight.com/resources/img/space/comparison.png http://www.withoutspaceandlight.com/resources/img/space/comp...

hindsightbias 13y ago
Here's a US architect that I think is more realistic towards downsizing: http://rosschapin.com/Plans/plans.html http://rosschapin.com/Plans/plans.html

afterburner 13y ago

Is this to get people used to rising real estate costs?

viame 13y ago

You can compress these things and a lot of people have, but to live like this is another story. I myself build homes, apartments, I also design kitchens, did flips, and I can tell you that I have not met one person that could live in a tiny box like that. Yes, it is a dream of everyone, to be very simple and live like this, but this is not going to happen. She moved from 2,500sqft to 200sqft, why? You don't wake up one day and do that unless you cannot afford living in a house, and I don't care what she says. Maybe it's her cottage or trailer, I really don't know, but don't believe anything they say on the news. A lot of people would go insane in a 200sqft space. It's like a cell. If anyone wants to try, please come live in my shed. It's very minimalistic, raw, super nice like this place. :)

JoeAltmaier 13y ago
Agreed. Stunts like this are done by design students; what evidence that anyone lives in it, for any significant amount of time? I've had a strange notion recently, that these things are actually not helpful in the larger scheme of things. Some creative person goes an lives in a shoebox; no room to design or socialize or have a hobby or even bring work home. Now we've taken a productive person out of society and turned them into a hermit. How does that help? It seems selfish at some level.
- untothebreach 13y ago
  This woman seems to do ok: http://rowdykittens.com/ http://rowdykittens.com/
- walshemj 13y ago
  Octu in a capsule hotel sounds like hell on earth
driverdan 13y ago
> I have not met one person that could live in a tiny box like that What's wrong with the people you've met? If they're single there's no reason they couldn't live in a place like that. They don't need most of the junk they own and could get along just fine in a small home.

oceanician 13y ago

I've debating about doing this in the UK with a 32ft shipping container, and possibly straw bail externally for insulation, and a water collector on the roof for grey usage. Seen some great projects in London & Brighton, but non in Manchester for homes yet. Though there's been a great use for offices in the Sharp project. Anyone else in the UK looking at this sort of thing? One question: Why the wheels if you're only going to move it every so often - say a couple of years?

shawnee_ 13y ago

Living small(er) in order to minimize carbon footprint makes sense. Green Metropolis by David Owen is a fantastic book that makes the case for Manhattan being a great blueprint for the ideal city of the future -- people living more densely = less energy use individually & less "space" to accumulate stuff and waste. Trash disposal in the city is such a complex problem that residents are literally forced to be economical about their consumption habits. Traditional concepts of homesteading on the plains, whether with large ranch houses or an "eco" house made of straw and mud are not necessarily ecologically friendly when there's imperative need to drive to get to the nearest urban area for work, school, shopping, etc -- these, he argues, are the antithesis of efficiency. Small eco-homes are not just a trend; they are the new era in real estate development. But they need to be built such that they can collectively share infrastructures the same way city residents do. The project I'm working on, applied to YC with (and was rejected from) last batch is built on this idea of more ecological homesteading in order to create better urban planning. Masdar City http://www.masdarcity.ae/en/ http://www.masdarcity.ae/en/ is an interesting prototype for the future of cities. We've schooled our youngins enough for them to know that ecological awareness needs to be a lifestyle. They're surprisingly aware that the world they are inheriting has exponential population growth, limited resources, and that the "industrial revolution" model of economic viability just isn't going to work forever they way it has been working.

infinotize 13y ago

Is there anyone on HN who doesn't aspire to the minimalist, tiny (usually urban) home, outsourced lifestyle (by that I mean, laundry service, car rental, eat out vs cooking, etc)? I'm genuinely curious.

ghaff 13y ago
I'm sure lots don't. I see the attraction of an urban lifestyle but I also like the space and quiet of where I live in the country--and the ability to hop in the car and go somewhere with canoe, skis, etc. (And I enjoy cooking. I travel a lot and find that having to eat out gets old after a while.)
dsr_ 13y ago
Hi. The only part of that grouping I'm interested in is "urban". When you get enough people close together, you can do things that are otherwise unprofitable. I live in a fairly large house on a road with real bus service that connects me to Cambridge, the Boston MBTA, and a commuter rail in and out. That means that we can get along with one car instead of two. We do our own laundry, cook most meals from scratch, and keep multiple cats. We have a standing arrangement with a housekeeper to help clean our house a few times a month. My chief desire is to be comfortable, not to live a life of ascetic minimalism, aesthetic cleanliness, or meditative contemplation. There are books in every room in the house. There is always a computing device with internet access within a few steps. We have space for Lego, toys, hobbies and tools. I understand how someone who lives alone might want to be in a tiny space -- because they don't really live there, they live outside the house anyway. But that's not what I want, and it's not what I have.
handzhiev 13y ago
Yes. I like being self-sufficient, having a garden, doing cooking, woodworking, and a lot of stuff on my own.

apunic 13y ago

Macy Miller's Tiny House is the trend but there are way nicer implementations for just double the price: http://www.ecospacestudios.com/ http://www.ecospacestudios.com/

squozzer 13y ago

I like this idea a little better -- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/9243318/Container-living-a-home-for-under-50000.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/9243318/Container-living...

BadassFractal 13y ago

I'd totally live in a 200sqft apt in SF if someone were to offer one this well thought-out.

allochthon 13y ago

I love that she designed and built the house herself, and I love that she did a great job on the interior design. I also like that there's a little bit of yard (perhaps a lot -- hard to tell from the photo). I like the 200 sq. foot size a little less. My own dream homes (there are two): 1. A small home (> 200 sq. feet) or perhaps unit in a larger condominium complex or communal living space in a denser urban conglomeration. The town/city is not so large that you cannot easily walk or ride a bike through the length of it. Lots of trees and green space. Light rail transportation to nearby urban areas. Not as dense as SF or anywhere near as dense as Manhattan. But not so suburban that you need a car. Building height is kept at or below five stories, and averages two stories. The buildings do not block sunlight. There are places at the edge of the town/city for long-term car storage, but driving is not permitted within it. 2. A nice cabin or ranchouse (~1000-2000 sq. feet?) in the countryside with access to light rail within biking distance.