I chose to work alone on the final project in order to investigate
the application of what has been deemed “tiny houses” or “micro living” by our
society. These are houses which are usually the size of a typical family room[1].
These have been appearing in society more frequently of late. There are a
couple reasons for this, 1. Mortgages are increasing and make it difficult for
many individuals to own a home. 2. The energy efficiency is far greater than a
traditional home in comparison.
An aspect that is of interest to me especially will be the integration
of building techniques. I will look at increasing technology to improve the
comfortability as well as the efficiency of the houses.
While at first this may seem like an appealing lure,
building a house for close to $5,000 dollars[2]. The attractiveness is short
lived when the consumer realizes the opportunity cost he is relinquishing.
These include space allocation of the most prevelant as well as many things we
take for granted living in todays society. For instance, a need to live lean
would exist, this includes not stockpiling on any one item and instead making
frequent trips. Among another of the main cons is the typical lack of a
bathroom in general. This would be a primary concern for almost all of
civilization today.
So what separates a tiny house from a trailier is a question
I asked myself. Well to be honest they have a lot of similarities in overall stature.
Although as you examine them closer there is more innovation with a tiny house,
these require critical thinking and planning to design an effective model.
Another difference is the finishes for a trailer and for a tiny house are quite
different. A tiny home is not made with inexpensive building techniques and
material such as a trailer. Instead the opposite they integrate superior
techniques and material only at a small and more affordable scale for the
public[3] . If I am able to I would also like to look into other application in
the commercial sector of this type of housing.
References
[2] http://tinyhousetalk.com/mortgage-free-small-house/
[3] http://www.countryplans.com/
William,
ReplyDeleteI find your ‘tiny houses’ topic really interesting. I have to admit that I never heard about it before. This is the type of housing that I see happening in a near future, especially in overcrowded cities. I think that Tokyo is already suffering from overcrowding and people are now living in really small “apartments”. Some apartments are even smaller than a normal living rooms and the bed or bedroom is the size of a closet. This new housing trend is definitely going to change society in many aspects. I see it will have a major influence in marriage and family size decisions. I believe people are going to consider to not get married, not have children, or have no more than one child. I am definitely interested knowing the results of your investigation.
$5000 to construct a house is a pretty remarkable price, even though you're giving up storage space. Do these house have the same features/appliances as a "normal" size house (fridge, washing machine, etc), or would these have to be mini versions? How would these one-room houses be designed so they maximize space? You might want to look into entries for past Solar Decathlon competitions (I've been looking into this for my and Danielle Schroeder's research project). Most entries are not quite at the micro scale level but are still quite small, with some around 1000 square feet.
ReplyDelete