background preloader

How To Pack A Whole Lot Of Living In 221 sq ft

How To Pack A Whole Lot Of Living In 221 sq ft
One of the key limitations in the design of many tiny houses is the fact that they have to be built on trailer chassis. Many zoning bylaws have minimum building sizes to keep the riffraff out and the property taxes up; many building codes have minimum room sizes and other rules that make it very hard to build small. By having wheels, it becomes a recreational vehicle and it can sneak under a lot of radars. But it's really tough to design a decent space in an 8'-6" wide (exterior dimensions!) space. © Tiny House Build Andrew and Gabriella Morrison have pulled it off in their 221 square foot home and write about it (and how they live in it) on the Tiny House Blog. To our surprise we have not felt, at any point, that we have had to make any compromises or sacrifices in our self designed and built home. By putting the kitchen at one end and the bathroom at the other, they are able to use the full width of the trailer and make them generous. Related:  Design for Smal Spaces

The Smallest House in Italy At just 75 square feet this little house, designed by Marco Pierazzi, occupies a tiny spot in an alley near Castel Sant’Angelo and St. Peter’s Square in Rome. While the floorspace was minimal, Marco took advantage of the height and built a loft layer above the kitchen/living area. The loft bed turns into a sofa during the day and a trap door, leading to a small staircase, can be lowered to increase the upstairs floorspace. The linked article reports: “Architect and designer Marco Pierazzi saw the potential in an abandoned, one-room alleyway house just steps from Roman landmarks like the Pantheon and Saint Peter’s Square. See more of The ‘Smallest House in Italy’. Below: Front door, and only side with windows. Below: Main living area with the table folded away. Below: Now the table is out and ready for a meal. Below: A peek down below through the loft’s trap door. Below: The loft in bed mode. Below: The loft in sofa mode.

Student Constructs Complete Home Of 75 ft² 552 Flares Twitter 12 Facebook 335 Reddit 1 StumbleUpon 198 LinkedIn 2 inShare2 Google+ 4 552 Flares × There’s a kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, and even a patio Since 2000, China’s cities have expanded at an average rate of 10% annually. It is estimated that China’s urban population will increase by 400 million people by 2025, when its cities will house a combined population of over one billion. That limitations can actually boost creativity is shown by the Chinese architecture student who designed this 75 ft² wooden house (23 m²) Source: Imgur, Wikipedia smart architecture, prefabricated houses china, architecture china photos (20 votes, average: 4.80 out of 5)

How To Sharpen a Knife Like a Bad-Ass Boy Scout Pico Dwelling – Micro Apartment in Seattle The Pico Dwelling is a 182 square foot micro apartment in Seattle. It’s the home and creation of Steve Sauer, an engineer with experience designing aircraft interiors for Boeing. The original space was a storage unit in a basement of a 100+ year old building. About ten years ago Steve bought the room as a storage unit but was drawn to the challenge of making it livable. Seattle permits some very small spaces, but Steve’s place was even smaller than that. After completing the project he worked with the city to make it legal, which sounds like a long and risky path but one that ended in success. The old building and the lucky positioning of existing pipes provided the necessary plumbing, ventilation, and heating. Like with most tiny interiors, built-in cabinetry and furnishings need to be custom built. Steve’s place is clearly a labor of love. Great work Steve!

Build This Cozy Cabin For Under $4,000 Related Content Build a Houseboat Here is a plan for how to build your own floating cabin, "The Live Aboard Houseboat." Rays of early-morning sunlight gently peek through the windows, easing you awake. In this article, I’ll show you how to build a 14-by-20-foot cabin featuring a sleeping loft over the porch for about $4,000. My own cabin adventure began in 1986, when I built one as an inexpensive place to stay while constructing my house — that’s when I began learning what makes cabin design and construction successful. What follows is a cabin plan with the hands-on know-how I wish I had 20 years ago. I believe in building for the long haul. A Firm Foundation Every well-built structure begins with the foundation. Cold climates are a different matter, and one of the best cabin foundations you can choose is established easily with minimal tools and time. The best way to mark your foundation outline is with 12-inch spikes pushed into the earth and connected with nylon string. Wall Framing

A Rocket Stove Made From a Five Gallon Metal Bucket The principle behind a rocket stove is simple–rather than cooking on an open fire, you burn wood in an insulated chimney. Rocket stoves are highly efficient and easy to make. They run on twigs, so you can avoid cutting down a whole tree just to cook dinner. We’ve had a rocket stove made out of brick in our backyard for several years. Using a piece of 4″ vent pipe and a 90º elbow, I made the chimney. I traced the outline of the vent pipe on to the lid of the bucket and cut this hole out with a jig saw. Using the vent pipe as a guide again, I cut out a 4″ hole near the bottom of the bucket. I used one part clay (harvested from the yard) to six parts vermiculite as my insulation material. With the vent pipe in place, I packed the insulation into the bucket and let it dry for a few days before putting the lid on. I found a barbecue grill at Home Depot that rests on the top of the bucket to support a pot. The last step was to add the new Root Simple stencil to the back.

Harbour Attic Apartment by Gosplan Located in Camogli, a village near Genoa, Italy, the Harbour Attic is a relatively small holiday apartment in an attic above an old fisherman’s harbor. Designed by Gosplan, the 35 square meter (approx. 377 sq ft) apartment makes the most of the room it has by providing all the necessities into a smartly-designed, scaled-down space complete with two bedrooms, studio, living room, kitchen, and bathroom. With not much floor surface and a gambrel roof, careful attention had to be paid to the layout. It also meant that each built-in piece had to have the ability to be stored away when not in use. As you can see, the kitchen disappears when not in use, becoming a countertop or storage surface. The wooden floors have a light, almost gray stain that shows up a little darker on the cabinetry. Wait till you see what this space becomes when it’s needed… A second bedroom! Photos by Anna Positano.

Build A Log Cabin For $100 Living in a cozy little cabin nestled in the woods is part and parcel of the classic Thoreau-inspired lifestyle most folks dream of now and then. But the romantic vision of log-home life is shattered — for many people — by the sheer cost of such structures, which can be as high as that of equivalent conventional homes. That doesn't have to be the case, however. First Steps One of the ways in which we kept our expenses down was to choose an uncomplicated design for our cabin. The size of our cabin was limited more by our stamina than by the design. When our plans were drawn up, we chose a cleared and level site with nearby water, pitched a couple of large tents for temporary shelter, and packed in enough flour and beans to sustain us during a summer of hard work. Log Foraging Next on our agenda was the exciting — and often backbreaking — task of finding, cutting, and hauling in the logs that would soon become the walls of our home. A Fine Floor Raising the Walls The Second Story

Related: