Jay Nelson is a gifted artist/builder. His mobile designs were featured in Tiny Homes and Tiny Homes on the Move: an electric car on bike wheels; an 8′ dinghy that you can sleep inside (and carry a surfboard on the roof); a motor scooter with surfboard rack.
What’s surprising is that his carpentry (and building design) are also outstanding. I especially like the way he uses used wood.
This is a treehouse he built on Kaua‘i. It’s not finished (but close).
Hi Lloyd,
Just completed another bridge project. This was constructed using a hybrid of laminated plywood, steel, and oak. It’s the first time I’ve experimented with such large laminations!
–Jonny
Les Tit’B Libres is a group of young French artists living communally in handmade structures, such as this cob home with a reciprocal roof.
See more of their free lifestyle at titblibre.garagepunks.com.
To build a reciprocal roof, we first install a temporary central pillar on which the first chevron is placed. The height of this pillar depends on the roof pitch.The following rafters are then placed to support the one on the other. The last chevron place above the penultimate and below the first one. They are then attached to each other and the central pillar is removed. If only one of the rafters breaks, the whole structure collapses. Read More …
In 2007, we got an email from Yogan, a young carpenter in France. He said he’d started out with a Volkswagen van, worked alone, and was following in the footsteps of old carpenters, using “…noble wood.” He had a large Mercedes van that contained his portable tools, as well as a bed and kitchen for working away from his home territory. He’d seen our book Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter, and wanted us to see the treehouse he was living in. We featured Yogan in both Tiny Homes and Tiny Homes on the Move. Here’s a new creation from Yogan, a ship-shape elevated 450 sq. ft. tiny home located in France, with a deck shaped like the prow of a ship.
Read More …
This is SunRay’s newest down-drafting sauna with a stove built from salvaged materials. The fire box is a 20″-diameter stainless steel piece from an industrial heating system. The heat riser is housed inside an old propane tank.
Flue gases spiral and rise until they hit the top of the tank and then are forced down between the heat riser and the tank until they are vented out the spiral chimney made of flexible stainless steel ducting.
Read More …
In 1961, a surfing friend, John Stonum, was studying to be an architect at UC Berkeley, and designed this small building for me to build in Mill Valley, California. I wanted to build a sod roof (now called “living roof”), and we had journeyed up to the Heritage House on the Mendocino Coast to see their two sod-roofed cabins.
This was a post-and-beam structure, with posts 6 feet on centers, and oversized precast concrete piers for the foundation. A lumberyard in nearby Olema, California was going out of business and I bought a truckload of “merch” grade rough redwood two-by-fours for $35 a 1000. Not $350, but $35.
Read More …
Although we featured this shed earlier this year, here is an article with more information and better pics.
Carpenter, painter, musician and sculptor Joel Bird started working on his garden shed four years ago. “It was like an experiment, really,” Bird says. He’d finished renovating the house he’d bought in Tottenham, north London, and he wanted to create a serene and functional workspace in which he could produce music and paint. In addition to a workspace, he also wanted a garden, so he designed his shed with a garden on the roof. Over the past four years, the roof garden has become more and more elaborate, with a raised bed for vegetables, solar panels and an efficient drainage system. Read More …
Hi Lloyd and Co.:
Saw your call for responses to the upcoming Small Homes book. Exciting! I think our straw bale & timber frame home fits squarely into that category. It’s actually around 440 sq. feet of interior heated space, but with the porch and balcony it’s a bit bigger.
SunRay Kelley is a master natural builder whose work has been featured in Builders of the Pacific Coast, Waterfall House
Sounds like you have another great project to keep you busy and out of trouble this rainy season. Love and Light,
Bonnie and SunRay
Jake and Kiva have produced a YouTube series of construction videos documenting a tiny home build on Vancouver Island. The videos follow their tiny house project, from early design to completion and beyond showing materials, tools, and construction techniques. A 3D Google Sketchup plan is also available as a free download.
Check out their videos below:
In this episode, we introduce ourselves and catch you up on what we’ve done so far.
In this episode, we talk about the trailer that we have acquired for the project, why we chose it, and the process we went through to get it.
In Tiny Homes, we did two pages (pp. 110-111) on Ziggy Liloia’s cob cottage. In this excerpt from his website, TheYearOfMud.com, he explains how he built his reciprocal framed roof.
A reciprocal roof is a beautiful and simple self-supporting structure that can be composed of as few as three rafters, and up to any imaginable quantity (within reason, of course). Reciprocal roofs require no center support, they are quick to construct, and they can be built using round poles or dimensional lumber (perhaps with some creative notching). They are extremely strong, perfect for round buildings, and very appropriate for living roofs, as well. The reciprocal roof design was developed by Graham Brown in 1987. Read More …
I did 3 posts on Jonny Briggs’ timber framing on my blog here: www.lloydkahn.com/?s=briggs
Jonny is a 26-year-old carpenter from North Yorkshire who learned his craft at the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community (that’s Prince of Wales — traditional carpentry is just one of Charlie’s many earth-sensitive endeavors).
“…The building craft apprenticeship allows students who have a genuine interest in traditional building, sustainability and design to learn from master craftspeople around the UK.
Jonny now specializes in the design and build of traditional timber frames, structural timber work and bespoke furniture.”
Jonny wrote us today:
Hi Lloyd,
I have finally got a website together which shows the larger structures I have built over the last few years. It’s www.jonny-briggs.com
Thanks,
Jonny
I tell ya, the 20-year-olds these days are really something! A whole new octave.
See also:
Foster Huntington’s 6-speed 6 cylinder Toyota 4×4 pickup truck camper is featured in Tiny Homes on the Move (pp. 22-23). He stopped by our studio on his way north from Baja last year and we shot photos for the book. It’s an beautiful rig, the best I’ve ever seen for off-road/surfing travel. He was heading up the coast, looking for new adventures.
Well, he sure found some; yesterday he emailed us:
Hey Lloyd,
Hope things are going well in for you. I’ve been working on a project building tree houses and a skatebowl on in the Columbia River Gorge. Check it out here: www.thecindercone.com
–Foster
Check out Foster and friends building, skating, jumping into waterfalls, hot-tubbing. Are these guys having fun? I wanna be there! (and 40 years younger).
www.instagram.com/fosterhunting
Hi,
I have just completed a structure that has greatly been inspired by the books you produce. I am a 26-year-old carpenter/designer from the UK and work using traditional techniques and local sustainable materials.
I just thought I would share my creation with you, the Peach House was commissioned by a member of the Royal family and I was given free rein with the design and build, which was a very rare but amazing experience. Read More …
Just sent to us by French carpenter Yogan, who has been featured in both Tiny Homes and Tiny Homes on the Move.
He wrote: “The name is pas de toit sans toi (no roof without you — yeah).”
Send us material (photos and text) for The Shelter Blog.
