The dream of a home in the suburbs with a white picket fence is changing.
Between housing crises and homelessness, mounting debt and downsizing, home ownership has become increasingly less attainable.
The tiny house movement is a direct response to these forces, with cities and designers asking whether micro dwellings can address pressing issues or if they are glorifying unhealthy living conditions.
To complicate things, tiny homes come in many sizes, and can actually be illegal in some places. In the United States, tiny houses are difficult to regulate when it comes to zoning and safety, and states can deem them unacceptable as forms of residency. The law looks at tiny houses as something between camper vans, mobile homes, and traditional single-family residences. They can be micro-apartments and office spaces to cabins on wheels. But to officially be “tiny,” the house has to be 400 square feet or less according to the International Code Council. Tiny homes also come in two different types: movable (on wheels) or stationary (on a foundation).
While there are many problems, tiny homes can also provide a range of benefits, from a minimalist lifestyle and mobility to lower costs when compared to traditional single family homes. But are they truly an answer to urban inequality, or capitalizing on the needs of a growing demographic? The following articles explore the tiny house movement and where these questions may be headed.
This article was first published in Arch Daily and is republished with permission.
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Stop building houses on trailers and calling them tiny homes. They are trailer houses or RVs. Build a tiny home like a site built home. Tiny slab tiny framing tiny walls then you have a tiny home. The wheels are CRAP!
Green Building Africa promotes the need for net carbon zero buildings and cities in Africa. We are fiercely independent and encourage outlying thinkers to contribute to the #netcarbonzero movement. Climate change is upon us and now is the time to react in a more diverse and broader approach to sustainability in the built environment. We challenge architects, property developers, urban planners, renewable energy professionals and green building specialists. We also challenge the funding houses and regulators and the role they play in facilitating investment into green projects. Lastly, we explore and investigate new technology and real-time data to speed up the journey in realising a net carbon zero environment for our children.
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Stop building houses on trailers and calling them tiny homes. They are trailer houses or RVs. Build a tiny home like a site built home. Tiny slab tiny framing tiny walls then you have a tiny home. The wheels are CRAP!