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• www.lloydkahn.com/…

Godfrey & Lloyd,

Here’s my friend Paul Hedger’s enormous, no nails, framework for new building, church, in Isleham, near Ely in the Fen country!

Pics of my housetruck to come.

Sláinte,
–D

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

Trellis on studio built by Lloyd Kahn in Mill Valley, California, in 1962. Photo by Lloyd Kahn

• shelterpub.tumblr.com/…

Photo by Lloyd Kahn

This is a shack that I built on a remote beach about 5 years ago. (It’s such a long hike that I’ve never seen anyone at this spot.) I used hammer and nails. I kept a tarp stashed behind some bushes on the bank that I’d stretch over the top. Cook a pigeon or chicken on a fire, foil-wrapped potato and onions in coals. Sit around dying embers and watch stars. Flask of brandy. Sleep with waves hitting beach 50 feet away.

It blew down last year, and I’ll probably rebuild it later this year.

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/…

Hi, Lloyd,

I thought you might be interested in a photo story I created from a visit to an amazing off-grid community in southwest UK called Tinkers Bubble. It’s the most inspiring example of low-impact living I’ve seen here (and I’ve visited a lot!). Hope you enjoy.Š

Best wishes,
–The Bimbler

• www.thebimbler.co.uk/…
• The Tinkers Bubble blog