Category: Archived

  • High School Students Design/Build Project

    This is a great story about a class of high school students in Canada designing and building tiny houses. Each student is coming up with a design. Three houses will be built. In the end two will be dismantled and recycled into future projects and one will be sold to raise money for the school. I’m certain this will be just the first of a series of articles on this wonderful school project.

    High School Students Design/Build Project

  • Tiny House Design on Facebook

    I’ve setup a Tiny House Design Facebook page and now inviting all my Tiny House Living readers to join. You’ll get a sneak peek of the stories I run across during the week on Facebook before I write them up on Tiny House Design or Tiny House Living.  This is not a replacement for either of my two most popular blogs, just another way to stay connected to the tiny house world online.

    Tiny House Design on Facebook

  • Ryo’s $600 Hut

    Here’s a modern day homesteading story of a man buying 60-acres in northern California and building himself a simple $600 tiny house. He’s just getting started and recording his adventure and life on his blog, Laptop and a Rifle. I first spotted this story on Tiny House Blog.

    Ryo’s $600 Hut

  • Compact Japanese Modern Home

    This is a 624 square foot modern home designed by architect Toyo Ito. I wanted to share it with you because it’s so simple and unusual and contains a lot of great ideas for redefining a simple shed form.

    Compact Japanese Modern Home

  • Mirrored Tiny Treehouse

    I’ve often thought that mirrored roofing would be great for keeping a house cool in hot weather but it never occurred to me that in a forest mirrors might actually camouflage a building. This is just a design concept so who knows how well this would work… but it definitely sparks the imagination.

    Mirrored Tiny Treehouse

  • Enter & Win – Free Drawing for Tiny Prefab ebook

    Visit Tiny House Design and enter to win a free copy of my ebook, Tiny Prefab. I’ll be picking a winner this coming Sunday at midnight (PST). All you need to do to enter is post a comment on that announcement post and describe the type of tiny (or small) house you’d like to build someday. You should read some of the comments there now… great ideas.

    Enter & Win – Free Drawing for Tiny Prefab ebook

  • Green Clayton i-House Set in Kentucky

    This is a story of a homeowner installing a small prefab home. The Clayton Homes i-House is a modern factory-built home that isn’t exactly tiny (starts at about 700 square feet) but seems like a good solution for many people so I wanted to include it here this week.

    Green Clayton i-House Set in Kentucky

  • Stone Beehive Hut

    Many people are very familiar with the work, writings, and contributions of Lloyd Kahn, the founding editor-in-chief of Shelter Publications, Inc. This photo came from a trip he took to Europe. It’s a little stone hut located on the southwest coast of Ireland.

    What’s amazing about this little structure is that it’s constructed without mortar and was probably built around 200 A.D. The trick to its longevity was to fit the stones carefully together with careful attention to each concentric circular course. For me small structures like this define the words sustainable architecture. Photo credit Lloyd Kahn.

    Stone Beehive Hut

  • Urban Rancher Update

    I’ve been really impressed with the progress the Urban Rancher has been making in the mountains outside Los Angeles. His simple design and good choice of materials is going to give him and great little remote cabin. His most recent update was to add galvalume roofing.

    Urban Rancher Update

  • ZENDOME and Pacific Domes

    Based in Berlin ZENDOME manufactures the cool geodesic dome pictured here. They are priced a bit on the premium side and not exactly meant to be a year round home but seeing their great photos reminded me of the wonderful advantages of a dome home.

    So then I did a quick search for a Ashland, Oregon based dome manufacturer I’d run across in the past called Pacific Domes. These folks make some very nice livable dome kits in addition to the kinds of domes ZENDOME makes. The skins are also textile based but some insulation and weather-proofing options are available. If you’ve often wondered what a small cabin dome home would be like be sure to check out Pacific Domes.