We all know and love Jay’s amazing design that truly sparked the imagination of thousands.  When most people say Tiny House, we see in our minds an image of a Fencl or a Lusby, but it is important to remember that Tiny House come in all shapes and sizes.  This is important because by choosing a Tiny House we are breaking out of a mold, but sometimes we find ourselves in a new mold.  The out-of-the-box thinking that started Tiny Houses must be continued to improve an already great idea.   I submit these five improvements of the Tumbleweed Houses, but the face of Tiny Houses isn’t limited to Tumbleweed by any means.

Radiant Heat Floors

The Tiny House is typically heated by a small boat fireplace, which can run close to $1000, must be vented (which means cutting a hole in the roof) and I don’t like the look of the chimney.  Now radiant floors for those of you who don’t know, are wires inlaid into the subfloor to heat from the bottom up.  This gives a nice cozy feeling for your feet and since heat rises, you are heating the space as a whole.  It has been successfully done in the PAD (portlandalternativedwellings.com)

The best part about this option is that it adds about ½ inch rise on your floor level, which is unnoticeable, while the boat fireplace takes up a lot more space.  The downside to this is you will need electricity.  At 50 square feet (remember you don’t heat areas you don’t walk on) running an hour will need around 6 amps at 120 volts for a total use of ~750 watts.  Most folks are going to have power, so this is pretty reasonable when combined with a programmable thermostat.

Lockers

I came upon this idea over at Jonathan’s blog (http://gungy.livejournal.com) and it just made sense.  Upstairs in the loft he has created small “lockers” that line the side of his bed.  This frames the mattress, adds storage and keeps things looking neat while still having access to it.  He did an excellent job at taking the existing structure and integrating the storage to match.  The added bonus of this is that your mattress will have less room to shift as you climb in and out of bed.  I would take this option one step further by adapting one of the “lockers” near the head end to have a power outlet inside of it with holes to run cables to the top, this would create a way to charge your cell phone and ipod etc. neatly.

On Demand Water Heater

This one will certainly take a bit more expertise and planning, but there is one thing I would miss after a long day in the garden is not having a hot shower.  These water heaters are really small, can fit just about anywhere and mean that you only expend energy when you are in need of hot water.  Take all that and top it off with tax credits and it sounds like a great idea.  What is the catch?  You will need electricity (albeit a small amount and propane), which I feel is something that most Tiny House people have, either solar or grid.  You certainly can design it so you can bypass this when you are running off the grid.

Integrated Jacks

One thing many people don’t realize is that if you are going to be setting up in one spot with a Tiny House on a trailer is that just letting it sit there can lead to tire shock, which will put flat spots on your tires or break down the walls faster.  It is probably a good idea to jack the trailer up and remove the tires, this way people can’t steal your house. With jacks you also have a more stable floor, it could be argued that it is safer too.

Integrated jacks aren’t anything new, look at trailers and popup campers, but for $100-200 you can get some nice looking jacks that can be integrated into the trailer so you are never without them.  Be sure to take into account what weight they will be holding, 4 tons per jack will be overkill, but you will never have to worry about it.  The added benefit of these are if you ever get a flat tire on the road, these are already in place and are safer because they are welded to the frame.

Flexible Shelves

This one is a bit of a stretch, but I decided to add it anyway.  Jay’s craftsmanship is nothing short of beauty, the quality is superb, which is why he is a premium brand.  I felt the need to have my storage in these to be a bit more flexible.  With moveable shelves, rolling shelves, etcetera you are able to accommodate a wider range of items and have them tucked away out of sight.  See my photo here and take a look around my blog for lots of ideas.

This neat Parisian flat was designed by H2O Architects and is just under 650 square feet.  With a unique flowing wall that is designed to define space while maintain the flow, it allows the owner, an avid comic book collector, to show off his collection.  The built in storage is pervasive through out the apartment and has really nice accent backings to break up the almost overwhelming white.

Here is what the architect had to say about the design:

The new design offers a continuous wide open space which expands, becomes more complex or dense depending on orientations and uses. These variances are defined by the variable geometries and the usable thickness of the casework and walls. A study on sculpting these depths allowed to create a variety of cavities, niches and alcoves. The sculpted shapes vary in size and colors to adapt to multiple functions in different locations. They can harbor either the vast collection of comics or a bar, a bathroom, a closet, and so on.

The front side of each shape always maintains its negative volume on the back. Behind the scenes can unveiled new uses taking place like cupboards, a desk, video, shelves, etc… In this manner, the apartment is continuously renewed and cross-views can become through-views.

Check out the multi use area below.  First it is a flip out office, but tuck that away and you have storage for your things.

More photos here

Today I thought it would be fun to talk about some interesting eco-friendly things that caught my over the past week.

You love pizza, but you hate the waste of the packaging. Well here is a new idea from Greenbox, Check the video for how it works.

Next is recycled newspaper that has been spun into yarn which can be used to make any number of things. I have yet to see how well it holds up in the rain, but this product screams Etsy.

via

Here is another one that I found, my sister and mother are both weirdly addicted to using straws, frankly I just don’t get it, but what kills me is that they have to throw these away each time.  I have never really seen any straws that are designed to be reusable or practical for reuse.  The nifty part about these is that you can drop them in a pot of boiling water or a dishwasher to completely sterilize them, inside and out.

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Here is a great little ottoman that is made from upcycled materials.  While I would be buying one of these, at a price tag of $425, You could easily make one of these yourself if you can get your hands on the old burlap bags.

Via

This Couch Folds Out To A Bed

Kittie and her husband started out with a minimal renovation. They pulled out the original murphy bed and the original pullman kitchen in order to create a small office nook and a modern kitchen counter, bar and sink area, respectively.

Kittie spends one week a month with her husband in Texas and her husband spends one week a month with Kittie in Tudor City. Before the full-scale renovation, Kittie recalls that she and her husband would “draw straws to see who would pull down the bits of ceiling that had peeled off that day.”

Kittie enjoyed the challenge of making small seem big so much that she decided to offer her services to all of Tudor City. In the past six months, she has fully renovated her bathroom and closet, and added a dining bar and cooking island, and has done the same for many of her neighbors.

As an up and coming interior designer of small spaces, Kittie’s alacrity for organization is as important as her sense of style. Here, she has managed to carve out space for a fully functioning kitchen, bedroom, and office space to run her business, as well as storage space for both her and her husband’s clothing, shoes, hats, cleaning supplies, bedding and pet accouterments!

Style: Serene, simple (and organized!)

Inspiration: My inspiration is this quote from William Morris in 1882: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or consider to be beautiful”.

Biggest Challenge: Creating a gracious home with everything I need, including running my interior design business, in a 10′ x 17′ space.

What Friends Say: “I can’t believe how spacious it feels” and “I love the wall color”

Biggest Embarrassment: Anyone who knows me will not be surprised that the upholstery on my armchair is still held together by pins at the back. Sigh.

Proudest DIY: Proudest D-I-Me-and-a-cabinetmaker — my “Stealth Desk” — a complete office hidden out of sight. Proudest DIY: the lampshades I made out of real burl maple veneer for less than $10 each.

Biggest Indulgence: My porcelain tea set, and fresh flowers every week.

Best Advice: Take the William Morris quote above to heart, and donate everything in your home that doesn’t meet those 2 criteria. You will be amazed at how graciously you can live in a tiny space!

More photos Click the link

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Architects: Sanders Pace Architecture
Location: Tennessee, USA
Project Team: Brandon F. Pace, John L. Sanders, Michael A. Davis
Client: Suzanne Shelton & Corinne Nicolas
Project Area: 16.3 sqm
Budget: $47,200.00
Project Year: 2009

The owners commissioned the architect to design and coordinate construction of an off-the-grid lakeside pavilion with integrated water reclamation and photovoltaic technology for weekend use. A lightweight steel structure was chosen for durability and ease of fabrication. This structure was shop fitted with tabs to allow for the attachment of a secondary skin. In developing this skin the desire for transparency coupled with a passive cooling approach led to a shop fabricated structural screen of 2×4 vertical cedar boards backed with insect screen. Structural blocking located between the vertical structure lends a delicate pattern to the structural skin camouflaging the structure within its densely wooded setting. Towards the water view the cedar skin dissolves and becomes a series of screen panels allowing unobstructed views to the water and mountains beyond. A single 8’x8’ sliding screen panel provides direct access to the water.

Via

So the other night I had just went to see a movie and soon afterwards ran into some other folks from my high school years.  We started talking about what everyone was doing when one of my friends chimed in that he was writing a thesis about New Urbanism.   We started talking about all these issues surrounding this topic: gentrification, neighborhood schools, the need for anchors in the community and how Charlotte, NC has approached the issues surrounding new urbanism.

Later we talked about how the Tiny House Movement fits into this notion of urbanism.  My friend noted that when he reads this site, he gets the notion of building the Tiny House in the woods, away from it all.  It’s true, I tend to focus on this, which I am at odds with.  The fact is to truly maximize sustainability in the highly populated world we live in today, we must come together and live in a more dense area.  I know that to truly usher in my way of living, one that is green and ecofriendly, one that is sustainable, one that focuses on local, one that focuses on community I must live in an area that is more densely packed.  The issues of course is how do you live in close proximity to others, while still having room to roam, to connect with nature and ensure a high quality of life.

Today’s urban centers are as my favorite author/speaker  James Kunstler “the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world, you can call it a technosis externality clusterfuck and it’s a tremendous problem for us, the outstanding problem is that there are places no one cares about”.  And that’s the rub, the urban manifestation is a place that no one cares about, that pushes out the poor, the minorities or if that isn’t possible, we turn to the phenomenon of “white flight”.  We talked about how we need to create places that are local, have your anchors (schools, stores, grocery, churches, living, office space and a non-salient parking plan for double the intended capacity), how these need to be with in walking distance to each other, but where you can go to other centers via mass transit that people actually want to ride.  Preferably we want a place where cars aren’t allowed in the main pedestrian areas, so long as you have lots of parking underground that allows the area to be permeable.

As we discussed all these huge issues I realized that this was a really extraordinary event happening, I was in awe!  Each person standing in that circle, talking about these huge issues, these progressive issues, these ideas that I feel will change the world in an impactful way, we were from such wildly different backgrounds.  I am the only self described “eco friendly” person, the others were not a polar opposite, but represented many different sects of society.  I was astonished, not that I think of them as stupid, but that they don’t have a logical reason to know this much about new urbanism and surrounding issues.  That essentially regular people had their finger on the pulse of such progressive and important issues was amazing.

It gave me a glimmer of hope that this dialogue that we were having about new urbanism, environmental issues, sustainability and community/local focus might be happening as a whole with people my age, that this generation, which has been sometimes labeled as useless, might be growing to inspire a new age of responsible and progressive thinking.

Now before I get too excited I took a step back to really look at the group and who we were.  I am seeking a PhD, working for Americorp and running a Tiny House blog, my other friend is a researcher at Duke University, the next girl is a social psychologist pursing her masters at Columbia, finally my friend who is a politician/going to Davidson College, who lost while running for a major office in Charlotte by only 3% at the age of 22 with no money.  These are admittedly not normal people.  But I hope that this dialogue is happening outside of these circles.  That my generation is talking about these issues with their friends, so that when we start taking hold as the baby boomers slip into retirement, that we can usher in a new age of socially and environmentally responsible corporatism in all areas of our lives.

Found this awesome concept for a hotel that would translate nicely to a Tiny House.  The really neat thing about this is that the skin of the structure is highly reflective so when placed in a forest it reflects the forest and almost blends in.  The skin more specifically is mirrored so it reflects outside, but you can see through it from the inside.  This affords a 360 degree view of the natural surroundings.  The architect says it would be “hung” from the tree, which seems both unrealistic and very high impact on the tree even if it could hold it.  None the less its a great idea!  Check the architect’s firm out here

If you asked me a year ago if I would ever be blogging about toilets, well I most likely would have laughed at you.

I have seen these before, but they are most often conversion kits and a never looked quite as nice.  The Caroma Profile Smart is a Small profile toilet that has an integrated sink that uses the water before it goes into the toilet.  I have told folks about these before and often get this disgusted look, if you have never had to fix one you might not know how they work.  First the water fills a reservoir tank, that tank empties down into the bow through small holes at the top, the water collects in the bowl and well you know the rest.   The water that goes into the reservoir is 100% clean water, same stuff you drink from the tap.

If you are in another country this may not be the case as they sometimes use grey water, which I hope catches on here, but here in the US of A we use the regular water to fill the bowl.  What is more many folks put what are essentially chlorine tablets in the reservoir which creates a barrier if you will.  In fact if you read any disaster preparedness guide they talk about if push comes to shove, you can drink from the reservoir (best to boil).

So what’s so great about this toilet first it actually looks somewhat attractive, the second is that it is a very narrow profile, perfect for tiny houses.

• High efficiency dual flush toilet – 1.28/0.8 gallons (4.8/3 liters) per flush
• Integrated sink for enhanced water savings
• After flushing, fresh cold water is directed through the faucet for hand washing and drains into the tank to be used for the next flush
• Unique water and space saving design
• Chrome buttons built-in to tapware design
• Easy installation
• Large trapway virtually eliminates blockages
• 12″ rough-in

more here

I have been preaching the need for us to live allot more locally, for a variety of reasons.   As we do the old infrastructure of our 1600 mile salad will no longer have its usefulness. I wrote about how retrofitting a grocery store was one example of this, well here is another.  Dornob talked about this great concept

There are nearly 500,000 freestanding billboards in the United States alone. What if any number of these could be converted en mass into functional, modular prefab homes that could be shipped and installed in rural and urban areas around the country – eco-friendly, cheap new housing from recycled old billboards.

Prefabrication and portability are nothing new in architecture and transportation, but world-changing modular and mass-producible visions  like this concept by Nocturnal Design Labs are few and far between. Unlike most conventional prefabs, these spaces are planned with interior layouts, sun paths and wind patterns in mind, giving the result a distictive and dynamic shape.

rom the curved modern shell and functional interior spaces to the high-up locations with varied views, there is more to this than simply a clever idea from a forward-thinking designer – these are best understood as prefab building prototypes, the potential start of an entire movement in adaptive reuse already being explored by various architects and designs.

I like allot of the styling of this house, but I am not a fan of the weird angles and I am usually a fan of the weird modern stuff.  However, I do light the really pallet and the accent lighting is a really great touch in this 500 square foot apartment. Whats really interesting is how they have some several areas of exposed ceiling, which looks like an old mill. I could sit here and try to rationalize the sharp angles, so here is what the site said:

Design of this 49 sqm apartment in Barcelona gets its inspiration from Japanese origami art. One wall which separate all functions of the apartment made with this style in mind and that is enough. When the designer create the wall the apartment already had a shell of simple concrete walls. Some parts of ceiling are still uncovered so futuristic design also has rustic elements.

The presence of the separation wall can be felt from the entrance to the apartment. Although all benefits could be seen just from the inside of the apartment. It adds feeling of movement and hidden spaces because of its diagonal form. The furniture in the apartment correspond to futuristic design. It is simple with straight lines. The same could be said about colors in use. Black and white is always part of futuristic interiors. In the end, the apartment design with all its experiments made small space look much more bigger than it is.

More here