This Tiny House on Wheels Began With the Small House Movement

Irwin Weiner ASID - Massive Victorian homes and their contemporary counterparts, the suburban McMansion, take lots of land, energy, and raw materials that aren't in keeping with our more frugal and green times. Back in 1997, architect Sarah Susanka started the "small house" movement when she published her book The Not So Big House, and the movement has taken many forms. It's a lifestyle movement embraced by today's Millenials - scale back on possessions; it's a minimalist decorating movement; and it's a reduce-your-home's-footprint movement.

Click on the photo to learn more about this other tiny house on wheels. (photo: Stephanie Diani for The New York Times)

Today's featured video shows contractor Tory Smith (whose contact information is at the end of the video) discussing a tiny house he designed for a newlywed couple - and it's on wheels, making it a take-anywhere, completely portable housing solution. Note that the not-so-big-house movement is now miniaturizing to so-called "tiny homes." The interior is a revelation, finding nooks and crannies for every basic living function. And you must admire Tory's reuse of antique building materials. We often forget that the greenest thing we can do in our homes is to reuse and recycle something old into our remodeling and design schemes. Thank you, Sarah, for creating a vibrant movement that tells us "less is more." Click here for more information on Sarah Susanka and her range of not-so-big books.

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German Designer Turns Housing Into Portable Cubes

Irwin Weiner ASID - I applaud all efforts by architects and designers to push the envelope on what we call "home" or "our house." In the future, we'll need homes that are more portable, smaller, and nimble to meet a more nomadic, on-the-move population. At least that's the future that German designer Werner Aisslinger envisions, and his beautiful Loftcube home is a perfect combination of portability, small square-footage, and contemporary appeal. All connections for water, electricity, and gas are in the Loftcube's anchor footings. And the interior, complete with clean Corian surfaces, is airy and light.

The designer has also modified the exterior structure of the Loftcube, taking away the yacht-material white cladding and replacing it with wood slats to create what he terms the Fincube (see below).

The following video goes more in-depth into Aisslinger's Loftcube, and shows

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Make My Next House Out of Super-Mud Adobe

Irwin Weiner ASID - It's vital to think more in terms of using sustainable building materials when we're renovating or building homes. It's incredible to me that more building materials aren't locally sourced, avoiding a large shipping carbon footprint. Egyptian master architect Hassan Fathy taught the world that locally-sourced mud can make soaring, elegant, environmentally sensitive homes and villages. And in that same vein, we have to honor the Native Americans and their adobe structures.

Sandbags used to build super adobe homes.

The folks at Post Modern Times built a super adobe home using few tree-based products and locally-sourced earth and related materials in Brazil. It took a few people a short period of time to make something that I'd like to do on a larger family scale. The bottom photo shows the building process, using sandbags, with the finished product shown in the top photo. Watch today's featured video and see this fascinating building process in action.

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Right Time to Consider a Small or Micro House

Irwin Weiner ASID - Victorian homes and McMansions - why are these two large-scale family homes relics of the past? First, they waste space. Many supersized homes are beyond human scale. They dwarf the inhabitants and oppress the spirit. I've seen it happen so many times. While it's good to have a enough space to avoid getting on one another's nerves, large homes have a tendency to promote isolation and weaken the fabric of the family unit ... you stay in your rooms and isolate yourself, you don't come together for meals. Microhomes and small homes are an antidote. They use far fewer building materials so are cheaper to build, they take up a smaller land footprint so you can incorporate more yard and outdoor rooms into your lot's building scheme, and they're infinitely more energy efficient and cost less to maintain. I have two featured videos for you today. One is a new microhouse, built quickly and efficiently on a concrete pier anchor (no basement).

And this video shows a Maine couple's bungaloo addition, giving us new perspectives on small homes - start small, get to know your home, center your family, and plan the ideal dream addition (in other words, add only what will add value to your home and to your lives once you get to know the space you're in).

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