Derek “Deek” Diedricksen is a self-proclaimed lover of all things tiny home. The Massachusetts-based builder is the author of numerous tiny home books; organizer of tiny home building and design workshops around the country; and has been featured on more than one HGTV series and the DIY Network. His latest book, Microshelters, features 59 of the country’s most creative small structures — cabins, tree houses, stilted shelters, backyard huts, and tiny homes on wheels.
Martin Bartlett’s pod home at Pacific High School in the Santa Cruz mountains, Calif., 1968.
This method of construction, developed by Bob McElroy in Big Sur, Calif., consisted of trimming ¼″ sheets of plywood at the top, bending them over, and attaching to each other with batts; shingles on exterior, circular plexiglas skylight at top.
Photos by Lloyd Kahn
The Conestoga Hut uses minimal materials, is simple to build, and provides durable shelter well suited to the Pacific Northwest climate. The Conestoga Hut emphasizes keeping people dry and secure.
www.communitysupportedshelters.org
From Jim Macey
Hi Lloyd,
I recently spent a week in one of the tiny dune shacks on the Cape Cod National Seashore — long a refuge for painters and writers, and a beautiful, improbable relic of bohemian Provincetown preserved through a long, hard fight by the community.
Regards,
–Ryan Shepard
Home decor magazine, House Beautiful, recently made its picks for the best tiny home in each state and one unique home in the woods of Bethlehem got top honor here in Connecticut.
This unique home in Bethlehem listed as an “earth house” is perfect for Eco-concious guests. The one-bedroom house available for $49 a night or $250 a week was “built from wood growing 10 feet away.”
Article from www.ctpost.com/…
Encompassed by her warm orange walls decorated with vivid art, Carrboro Board of Aldermen member Bethany Chaney said living in a home with a footprint of only 400 square feet was an experiment at first. “The things I have make me happy, and I don’t need to constantly acquire things to fill up room that I don’t use. I use every bit of space in this house,” she said. Chaney, a resident of Carrboro, is not alone in the quest to live on less.
Article from www.dailytarheel.com/…
Schedule for Kezurou-Kai USA 10/31/2015
- 9:00-9:15: Karl Bareis: Opening Greeting
- Ongoing: S. Oyama: Plastering Demonstration
- 9:15-10:30: Jay Van Arsdale (Part 1): Basic Joinery Cutout Techniques
- Toby Hargreaves and Mark Van Haltern: Hip Rafter Corner Joinery
- David Bassing: Sharpening and Blade “Back” Conditioning
- 10:30-12:00: Jay Van Arsdale (Part 2): High Angle Planing for Difficult Woods
- Matt Connerton: Chisels or “Nomi-nomics”
- Ryosei Kaneko (Part 1): Roof Layout and Use of Japanese Square
- 12:00-1:00: Lunch Break
- 1:00-2:00: Mike Laine: Planes and Planing
- Ryosei Kaneko (Part 2): Layout Table and Irregular Timbers
- Jay Van Arsdale (Part 3): Chisel and Plane Blade Maintenance
- 2:00-2:20: Karl Bareis: Explanation of Kezurou-Kai USA and 2016 Event
- 2:30-3:45: Planing Competition
- 3:45-4:00: Karl Bareis: Closing Remarks
- … [more in full post] …
$40 entrance fee, $20 students
I built a hut with a tiled roof, underfloor heating and mud and stone walls. This has been my most ambitious primitive project yet and was motivated by the scarcity of permanent roofing materials in this location. Here, palm thatch decays quickly due to the humidity and insects. Having some experience in making pottery I wondered if roof tiles could feasibly be made to get around these problems. Another advantage of a tiled roof is that it is fireproof. A wood-fired, underfloor heating system was installed for cold weather. A substantial wall of mud and stone were built under the finished roof. It should be obvious that this is not a survival shelter but a project used to develop primitive technological skills.
From primitivetechnology.wordpress.com/…
From Rick Gordon
Photo by Uncle Mud (aka Chris McClellan)
www.unclemud.com
Lime over wattle and daub with hand-split cedar shakes.
Student independent study project by Ian Stabler at Aprovecho’s Natural Building School.
Main cabin and shower house with a water-jacketed Franklin stove and hand-built tile tub in one room and shower in the other. Located at 40° 5’32.74″N 105°29’37.67″W, near Boulder, Colorado.
Contributed by Peter Stout
From www.cabinporn.com/…
The size of your home has a tremendous influence on your cost of living, environmental impact, and general well-being. The demand for space-efficient housing continues to grow exponentially as people of all ages discover that a smaller home might be the key to a larger life.
That’s why leading designers, builders, developers, realtors, policy makers and community members will gather for the Build Small Live Large 2015, a unique, one-day housing summit, to share what’s working, what’s new, and what’s next. Alan Durning from the Sightline Institute and tiny house pioneer Dee Williams will lead off the day with inspiring keynote speeches about how building small can lead to broader community action and how positive change really does begin at home.
Join us to learn how to build and rent out a backyard apartment, see successful examples of cottage clusters and small house communities, and become inspired by space-efficient and energy-efficient designs. End the day with an energizing look at the beautiful and inventive small spaces in the “Best of Small” Design Slam, and network with pioneering builders and designers of small houses throughout the event! Find out more at: Build Small Live Large Summit 2015.
–Dee Williams
Portland Alternative Dwellings
Build the life you dream … TODAY!
More info: www.buildsmall-livelarge.com
Hi Lloyd,
My name is Atulya K. Bingham and I run The Mud earthbag building website (www.themudhome.com). I hope my story inspires a few others to go for their dreams too.
I always wanted to write, and like many writers it was a passion I had to crowbar in between slabs of paid work. Then one day I had enough of compromising. Fortunately, I owned a small square of land in Turkey. I moved up there with a tent and not much else. It was the beginning of an adventure that changed every preconceived idea about what actually made me happy. Six months later, with only $6000 left and winter a month away, I gathered a team and embarked on the construction of a small earthbag house. I had zero building experience at the time.
Building my house was probably the most transformative thing I’ve ever taken on (and I’m no stranger to adventure). I ran out of money, made a heap of mistakes and was continually hounded by naysayers. But today I’m sitting inside that beautiful handcrafted home. Not one drop of cement was used and it is 100% solar-powered. My earthbag house has enabled me to leave behind the drudge of a job my heart wasn’t in and spend my days creating and writing instead. I love it.
There’s a free earthbag building PDF to download from my site if anyone wants it.
I’ve written the full story of the earthbag adventure in my popular book, Mud Ball.
–Atulya K. Bingham
Author of the OBBL winner Ayse’s Trail, and The Mud website.… [More in full article] …
At the end of tiny road, after another one of those roundabouts, lays a spectacular garden, then an abandoned castle, then a huge German bunker, then the Orangerie and finally, what I am really impatient to visit: the Mémoire de Soye two “baraques,” the French one — the 534-10 — and the American one — the famous UK100 we also had in the UK (about 8,000 were imported from America in 1946). I am amazed by all the work Mémoire de Soye has put in the dismantling of the prefabs, their re-assembling on a land which used to count 286 of them till 1991 when the last ones were pulled down! Then they transformed the two prefabs into wonderful cosy and cute museums, trying hard and succeeding in finding the right pieces of furniture, the memorabilia etc…
Article from www.theaccidentalphotographer.me/…
Brad Kittel from the Tiny Homes book (pages 44-49 and on the cover) has started a Kickstarter campaign for a book of plans for 30 houses built of 95% salvaged materials free of plastic, vinyl, sheetrock, or latex paints. Check it out.
Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/318443601/tiny-texas-houses-building-plans
Nine years ago I began pioneering the 95% Pure Salvage Building techniques that have been perfected over the years in the form of Tiny Texas Houses. They are now built using “Space Magic,” a term I coined for making spaces seem much bigger than they are through illusions of a sort few others in the tiny house industry seem to understand. Read More …
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