tiny home rant... again
After reading the third article in the last month about the downsides of tiny homes - i have to join the mix. I think tiny homes are stupid - there, I said it. Yes, people feel ungrounded in a tiny home - because they are - daaaaa.
Yes, people use other storage places for stuff that doesn't fit in their tiny home... daaaaa. (and so do many other people)
Yes, tiny homes are unattached to land and depreciate in value like a car or RV... double daaaaaadaaaaaa. Yet everyone misses the big point:
...and now a brief pause for some light 'tiny home' humor: In a recent contest for people to proclaim their smallest living space, one person said: " A womb. I stayed there for 9 months and then got evicted - and on my birthday no less! "
--------------------------------------------------------------------The real issue is that tiny homes have
higher construction (eco, carbon, $/sf) footprints than say... well, just about every other form of residential construction. Ok, maybe not compared to the uber-rich steel and glass residential monsters. Tiny homes need a high-end floor that can float on a trailer, they need four separate walls and their own separate roof - for what:~ 400sf? to shelter one of two people? Give me a multi-story townhouse or condo (with good wall insulation) that can house dozens of people at way lower carbon/construction$ intensities.
I veer between calling tiny homes glorified RV's OR one bad solution in affordable housing.
Maybe turning a storage shed into a tiny home and offering that as an alternative to homelessness and/or tent living (projects in Oakland, Portland,Seattle,+++)provides some temporary housing solution. But how would you like a couple dozen tiny homes in your neighborhood's supermarket parking lot?
' I've experienced this tiny home phenom first hand. I lived in a tiny house (9'x12') for over a year in Oregon. If it wasn't for the close-by river and forest, and community lodge and activities - i would've gotten 'tiny-house' fever (aka claustrophobic) quickly
A short history lesson: Tiny homes have been around for centuries. They go by different names: yurts, huts, igloos, wigwams, etc. Native Americans called them tipis, mongolians call them yurts - they're portable without wheels :-) Some anthropologists claim they go back to 1,000 BC!
The first tipping point for tiny homes probably occurred somewhere in the 1970's and was spearheaded by the book 'Shelter' by Loyd Kahn and Bob Easton. I met these intrepid souls many times at green building conferences and was always amazed at their immense knowledge of the evolution of shelter. And then Tumbleweed (2012) and Jay Shafer created our current tipping point, and here we are.
Next phenom: tiny houseboats! :-)))
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if you're still reading, here's some advantages to tiny homes:
- Various reasons for living in a tiny home include: financial, decreasing number of families, family time, lifestyle, maintenance, environmental concerns, portability and recreation.
- Some tiny homes can be made on wheels for easier travel and recreation.
- Tiny homes are less expensive and easier to manage.
- Tiny homes help people be more creative with storage and how to manage their belongings.
- Tiny homes are usually more eco-friendly and can be built from recycled material.
- Tiny homes manages solar and wind power better than a traditional home does.
- Tiny homes help families save money.
- With tiny homes being so tiny, the furniture can be made to fit in the home and is easier to access and carry around.
- Repairs are easier to manage and pay for.
- Tiny homes give people the opportunity to live a lifestyle that is fit for them and what they need on a daily basis.
- Designing a tiny home is simple and it can be upgraded at any time.
- Having a tiny home on a property can create more outdoor space for family growth and for animals’ luxury.
- Tiny homes allow a family to own their home faster than a normal housing mortgage.
- Tiny homes allow less clutter if it is designed correctly.
The article quoted shows a severe lack of actual research* - I'll not go through the lack of balance in it - will post to the article later if I make the time or have inclination (Phys.org is a great resource - interesting that this slipped through). Reality is that a few tens of millions will be seriously considering them in the future https://photos.app.goo.gl/fwXrAKeDviwC2LMY6
ReplyDeleteTiny houses are defined in tiny house movement as houses around 600 to1000 sq ft - This varies up with other considerations and does not include square footage of community buildings cooking cabanas and adjacent income stream buildings maker labs etc that are part of communities of compact houses. Tiny houses on wheels (THOWs building code abbrev.) The trend is toward grid free NetZero energy consumption and many with tiny houses on wheels are thinking of going there next even if they weren't before (they can save money without a front loader mortgage). Another trend is to use non toxic materials allowing healthy indoor air quality and all the associated well documented advantages. To me many of the tiny houses on wheels look like scaled down tract homes or fake Victorians - fugly - but so does much of US construction - this becomes more obvious after returning from other countries. As far as real tiny houses look at what Volvo, Honda, Ford and other companies are developing in regards to self driving electric cars that are actually offices and office/bedroom/kitchens -- as people stop buying cars and buy services this will add car to buying and tend to reduce carbon consumption. Most people use 80% of their house area 20% of the time 20% 80% of the time. Many sit in 2 or 3 places and use the kitchen toilet shower/bath and bed only - There is a confusion between tiny and compact (efficient - but more importantly effective and delete cluttered) Maybe there should be an effective community building movement to incorporate the healthy aspects of the tiny house movement and the developer trend to increase the profit per square foot margin by building tiny studios. In an increasingly noisy environment where most people do not have a lot of spare time because of mortgage, fast food etc. consumption syndrome, and mainstream media consumption urging out the latest burdens seems a pretty sane idea - Housing is changing drastically over the last 10 years and that trend is accelerating - it*s just not that visible yet and negative focus sells stories - However trillions of dollars will be spent that way unless we end with a whimper or a bang. Joy is intrinsic to good design - see Vitruvius 3 principles...
Happy 2019 Year of The Boar slashing through half baked bs. in the media and our own debilitating cynicism and rage so that we can get on with our actual purpose.
* There's so much variation in reasons why people change to smaller. - Primary seems to be movi from renting to owning without the the imposition of life and future restricting mortgages, downsizing, simplifying travelling etc. Heres something from 2015 that gives a glimpse of a few (or more) of the 84 million millennials views http://www.millennialhousinglab.org/mission/
Apart from all the basic and various other reasons why people are attracted to and actually do something about this whole solution the reason I found after designing compact for a while is that not only can more healthy choices be made about ones personal future but more amenities can be added to the basic structure without severe cost. And - mostmof all - over and over a gain I keep realising that I don't need to have my designs restricted by the dead ideas that I thought were traditions to design by. I don't have to think the way I thought yesterday and technology and attitude (apart from the living dying) are changing to support this if we filter out the reality we can gain..
Thanks for inspiring me blogging is a way of defining and redefining just like design and build.
must have deleted a bit -
ReplyDelete"Tiny houses on wheels (THOWs building code abbrev.)" -- average c. 8x22ft interior space - for legal/code reasons - unnecessarily narrow if you're going to move it an average of every 5 years or more but liveable if you want to travel without hotel bills.
The main problem with any unusual or safe sanitary secure or super insulated energy efficient or high tech IoT sensor rich or resilient (or subpar badly built) construction - just like some existing or bribe based new construction is that the codes dont include their system logic and put them in the subpar category. The other problem is land use and zoning restrictions - which have been changing radically slowly in the last two years.