Alex at Shedworking.co.uk recently shared a link to an article by Greg Denisiuk that explains why George Bernard Shaw built a spinning shed. I’d actually never given much thought to the reasons why Shaw built his writing hut on a big lazy susan, but Greg did a very nice job of explaining the backstory.

It turns out that the main purpose of Shaw’s lazy susan was to follow the sun. In the winter Shaw would get up from time to time and turn his hut toward the sun. This reduced the need for artificial lighting kept the place warm. In the summer he’d do just the opposite and keep the hut turned away from the sun to keep it cool. In other words Shaw’s spinning writing hut was a clever passive solar shed that only required the occasional turn toward (or away) from the sun.

Now try that with a McMansion

Be sure to visit Greg’s blog for the complete story on George Bernard Shaw’s spinning shed.

I’ve been noodling all week about what form a sustainable tiny house city might take. While my recent online wanderings into the city planning of Black Rock City got me started on this quest, its overall design is really geared for the week-long Burning Man event.

Models for truly sustainable cities would need to focus on other requirements in order to meet the year-after-year needs of its residents. This is why these particular ancient places popped back into my mind.

• Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon
• Cliff Palace in Southern Colorado and part of the Mesa Verde National Park
• Puye Cliff Dwellings near Espanola, New Mexico
• The Hopi Mesas in Northern Arizona
• The Taos Pueblo in Taos, New Mexico

Pueblo Bonito (above) was occupied for about 300 years starting in AD 828 and had between 650 and 800 rooms over 2-acres of land. The total peak population is unknown; some estimate it had been the home to several thousand people and others suggest it was home to less than 100 and served as a ritual or trading center.

While the potential peak population estimates fluctuate greatly, most agree that Chaco Conyon became uninhabitable due to a combination of local deforestation and an extended drought. Sadly this makes Pueblo Bonito an excellent example of what can happen when non-renewable natural resources are exhausted and water runs dry.

Cliff Palace (above) had about 150 rooms. It’s estimated that it took about 20 years to build and was continuously inhabited from about AD 1190 through c. 1260. Drought is suspected as the main cause for it’s abandonment.

The Puye Cliff Dwellings have a similar story. It was the home of about 1,500 people and built into the top and sides of a mesa. It was abandoned in 1577 due to drought, after several hundred years of occupancy.

Not all the ancient cities of the southwest were abandoned. The next two, the Hopi Mesas and The Taos Pueblo have been continuously inhabited for hundreds of years. Some say more… and I tend to believe them.

While living in the southwest I never had the opportunity to visit the Taos Pueblo, but I did spend about a month (two two-week visits in 1984 and 1985) staying with a family in Shongopavi, a Hopi village on Second Mesa.

The lessons that can be learned from these ancient communities can (and do) fill many volumes, but after you’ve dug through it some core lessons emerge.

• We must respect the land and recognize our role as an integral piece of the natural environment.
• We must live smartly within our means and use our natural resources at renewable rates.
• We must keep population well within the limits of our local natural resources to avoid trouble during hard times.
• We must choose to live in places with natural physical barriers to avoid trouble from invaders.
• We must choose a place that has a good chance of providing water and food for long periods of time.

I think the core requirements for a truly sustainable city (or civilization) must include these things. It may also be obvious that I might be thinking our current global civilization has been headed down the wrong path for some time.

Instead of spending too much time dwelling on how wrong we’ve built it, and how vulnerable we may be, I like to spend my time thinking about how we might build something better, inspired by the wisdom of the past.

Above: Walpi, a Hopi village on First Mesa. Below: Taos Pueblo. Photo credit Wikipedia.

I got a note and photos from Devin, a Historic Buildings Specialist who works for the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, with news that these little cabins need a new home and are free to anyone that can take them away. There are four identical cabins, each measuring about 12′ by 12′. The only catch is that they must be removed by July 31, 2010. Here’s how Devin described the cabins.

Four historic tourist cabins available for FREE to anyone willing to relocate them. Built in the 1930s in Richmond, Vermont, the Checkered House Cabins provided lodging for travelers prior to the construction of the Interstate. The cabins are now proposed for demolition, but are being offered for free to anyone who can safely remove them from the property and relocate them to a new site. Available individually or as a group.

Cabins must be removed from the property by July 31, 2010

Each cabin measures approximately 12′ x 12′ with a small bathroom and kitchen area. Exterior features include novelty siding, exposed rafter tails, original windows and door, and Craftsman-style entry hoods. These are great examples of roadside architecture and could be rehabilitated into wonderful little guest cottages, playhouses or retreats.

Below is a Google Map of the location. If you’re interested in the houses please contact the owner, Kelli Brown, at 802-503-5651.

View Larger Map

Below are some photos of the buildings.

My dad passed this Wall Street Journal story onto me today. It’s the story of Jakob Fugger, an extremely rich and influential banker that lived about 500 years ago. One of the philanthropic things he did was to build a village of small homes and apartments for people that needed them. The homes ranged in size from 500 to 700 square feet.

The property was put into trust and continues today with about 150 residents. The rent hasn’t gone up either. It costs about $1.23 a year but there’s one catch. Residents must pray daily for the Fugger and his descendants. To be precise, before moving in residents promise to say three prayers daily: the Lord’s Prayer, Hail Mary and the Apostles’ Creed. The required prayers aside this sounds like a pretty good idea for today’s collapsing housing market. Maybe someone in a position to create something amazing will read the article and take action. Maybe? Photo credit WSJ. Read the original article.

I got an email from a reader named Betsy (Thanks Again Betsy!) the other day after she had read about my upcoming nine tiny free project. Along with her note she sent a link to a movie about a man named Dick Proenneke. You may already know his story but I’ll summarize it below for those, like me, who had never heard of him before. But first watch this short version of the movie Alone in the Wilderness (2005). It’s about 9 minutes.

In his 50′s Dick Proenneke decided to spend some of his retirement in the wilderness. He chose a place called Twin Lakes in Alaska and in 1968 built a log cabin using nothing but hand tools. It was about 11′ by 15′. It had glass windows, hand-made wood door hinges, and hand-made furniture including a desk, chairs, bunk, and tables. He even built a stone and mortar fireplace to make it through the cold Alaskan winters.

Initially he planned to stay only a year or so but ended up staying 30 years. From time to time he’d travel back to civilization to spend time with family but continued to call his remote cabin home. In 1995 at age 82 he decided that the -50 °F winters were just too much and decided to live out the rest of his life with his brother in California. Dick Proenneke died on April 28, 2003 and left his cabin to the park service who now maintains it as a historic site and popular visitor attraction.

He also documented his life in film, photography, and writings. When filming himself he’d place the camera in a secure spot while he performed the task he wanted to record. This meant he also captured clips of himself walking and canoeing to and from the camera.

I realize this post is a bit off topic, except for the cabin and lifestyle, but I thought I’d share it with you on this first weekend in November. It’s a really inspiring story and stories like these can really help when times seem like they are getting tough. Don’t you think?

• Download the free eBook (50 MB): More Readings From One Man’s Wilderness
• Buy the DVD at Amazon.com: Alone in the Wilderness
• More about Dick Proenneke on the Lake Clark National Park & Reserve website.

Photo credit to the Park Service.

A reader, Brent, passed this onto me. I really like running across historic tiny houses, especially tiny mobile houses. It’s nice to remember that our interest in tiny living is not new. In fact it IS how people have been living for generations. McMansions are just a recent distraction.

I admit this is a little off topic being a House of God and not the kind of house one would literally live in but I suspect this fellow spent more than a few nights in it on the road. Thanks Brent! Here is the original post.

A long long time ago in what seems like a country far far away… Sears, Roebuck and Co. had a popular kit house mail order program and sold between 70,000 and 75,000 kit homes. Over 447 different designs from simple to grand were included in their catalog. They even did custom kits if you gave them plans. I just ran across the old archive of designs. Not all 447 are represented but there is a nice collection on the Sears Archives website.

If the homes look familiar don’t be too surprised; Sears didn’t innovate new styles but instead leveraged the popular styles of the day. The kits were easy to build and used balloon framing which made it easier for unskilled home owners to build the kits. Balloon framing is similar to modern framing except that there were no separations between floors in the walls creating a serious fire hazard. Balloon framing is now banned. Other innovations in these homes were the use of drywall, asphalt shingles, central heating, electricity, and plumbing. But their most valuable feature was that they were easy to build and inexpensive.

Today one could argue that it was inexpensive housing like this that lead to urban sprawl and other negative cultural impacts, but you could also take the point of view that these home kits empowered people to own their own homes. In any event the existance of the Sears Online Archive today is a very valuable resource for those looking for inspiration. Phtoto credit Sears Archives.

I was just surfing around on shedworking.co.uk and found a link to a website dedicated to Old Shepherds huts.  This photo made me wonder… is this the original tiny tumbleweed house? It also made me realize (again) that we’re not really treading into new territory with the investigation into tiny mobile living; we’re actually taking a cue from the past. Photo credit shepherdhuts.co.uk

This house isn’t really tiny, it just looks like it from the front. It’s a sprawling 300 square feet (ha ha) and was built in what was an alley about a hundred years ago. It’s 42 feet long and 7 feet wide and has one bedroom, a full bath, and even a washer and dryer.