Posts by Evan Kahn (433)

I have been looking forward to this for a while and it was not a disappointment! Lloyd Kahn is in the back of many self-builders’ cerebral toolboxes for his seminal works as Editor-in-Chief of Shelter Publications, California. His 1973 book Shelter is an incredibly detailed catalogue of building techniques through the ages, illustrated with the personal stories and evocative photos of small houses and cabins collected on his travels throughout the USA and Canada as well as Ireland and the UK…

• www.tinyhousescotland.co.uk/…

I met Cyrus while we were working on our book Tiny Homes on the Move. He is a talented filmmaker, surfer, traveler, van hacker and an all-around awesome person. He is in the midst of a new van build using a dually diesel Dodge Sprinter van and chronicling the journey for Reef.

I first moved into a van 10 years ago. It was a practical decision. I’d been commissioned to make a 16mm surf documentary and failed to negotiate a living wage for myself during the three years it took to make it. This oversight had me surviving on cans of kidney beans and needing a rent-free place to sleep while I traveled between Australia and Los Angeles shooting and editing…

• www.reef.com/…
• Instagram: @cyrus_sutton
• Web: www.korduroy.tv
• Tumblr: www.regressingforward.com

Hi,

I found your blog whilst looking at images for vardos on Google where I was seeking ideas and inspiration for my project. I’m based in Wales in the UK.

I have always fancied building one and decided to do it as a retirement project. I was lucky enough to find the basic structure on eBay, it was originally constructed by a blacksmith as a travelling workshop.

It was an unfitted shell on a twin-axle trailer, I picked it up at the beginning of the month and am making progress towards fitting it out. Whilst I like the traditional look, I wanted something less fussy.

So far I have painted the interior, made and fitted a rear window; although this mounts on the hinges for the original steel shutters so these can be replaced for security if left parked up for any length of time, I am part-way through making a similar one for the door.

Traditionally the bed goes sideways across the rear, so I have followed this and constructed a simple bed which pulls out to double width or slides back to make more space; there is space for storage beneath.
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In a city of big dreams and an ever-growing population trying to squeeze into a tight space, New York is hoping the solution to its housing problems is to go small — micro, in fact.

This spring marks the opening of Carmel Place, the city’s first apartment building made up entirely of micro apartments. Ranging in size from 260 to 360 square feet, the units were built to find space for the growing number of single-person households moving to the city.

• www.cbc.ca/…

Interior of 30′-diameter geodesic dome built by Lloyd Kahn in 1972 in Northern California. Struts are 2″ × 3″ Douglas fir; paneling is 1″ × 6″ Douglas fir recycled subflooring from Treasure Island Navy barracks. Photo by Lloyd Kahn

• shelterpub.tumblr.com/…

It is a fair bet that when Tom ­Dennis’s great-great-great grand­father took up his pastoral ­selection in Victoria’s Western ­District in 1840 he ­initially lived in a tiny hand-built house.

There’s no sign of it now: the former 4000 ha [15.5 square miles] Tarndwarncoort estate where the famed Polwarth sheep was bred, and where the Dennis family still lives, near ­Birregurra, has at its heart a magnificent bluestone mansion dating back to Cornish ancestor Alexander’s later years…

• www.theaustralian.com.au/…

Lloyd Kahn splitting shakes with a froe from redwood logs salvaged from a Northern California beach in the early ’70s. Photo by Billy Cummings

• shelterpub.tumblr.com/…