Tiny House Design » Nine Tiny Feet

Rainwater Collection and Nine Tiny Feet

Michael Janzen — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:28:12 +0000

I spent the better part of last week traveling to Los Angeles. Visiting that town always makes me think about sustainability and self-sufficiency because the whole place seems so dependent on outside natural resources; although you could probably say that about most big cities. As we drove up and down Interstate-5 past all the dried up farms I couldn’t help but think about how much rainwater my nine square foot concept house could actually capture.

I came up with this slight refinement to the previous design which has a larger single roof surface that spans the interior space, porch, and bay windows. This roof is about 50 square feet and if my math is right this roof would collect about 425 gallons of water per year here in Sacramento, California.

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Multifunktioneller Glühweinstand

Michael Janzen — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:40:46 +0000

I just spotted this on Shedworking and had to share it with you. As you can imagine I see incredible potential for leveraging some ideas from this design for Nine Tiny Feet. The man in the box is a DJ and this is a mini studio but I can totally see using this approach for achieving useful alcoves, benches, and storage. This clever use of unconventional walls is definitely thinking outside-the-box. You can see more at the website of Thomas Scherzer, getaglimpse.nl.

Possible Final Design for Nine Tiny Feet

Michael Janzen — Sun, 03 May 2009 07:46:56 +0000

Last night an unusual solution for Nine Tiny Feet popped into my head and I decided to stay up and draw it. This morning I added some color and detail. Tonight I think I might have found the final design that would make this nine square foot house concept habitable.

Why design and build a nine square foot house? Basically I wanted to explore the extreme end of tiny. I picked nine square feet because I think that’s about the amount of space I take up laying on the ground. It seemed like a good baseline and even though this house is still only in pixels it looks like it would work to me.

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Wedge Shaped Nine Tiny Feet Concept

Michael Janzen — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:13:27 +0000

As I mentioned previously the camping cabin and this super lightweight design for Nine Tiny Feet have been bubbling in my head for the past couple of weeks. Now that I see it in pixels I’m not sure what I think about it. I can’t help but like the traditional style of the original design but I do appreciate the extreme aerodynamics of this variation.

I also like that the addition of a rain water collection system and soil box grey water system. Don’t worry I realize that the amount of water these two systems could process is minimal. In fact this tiny roof would not collect enough water to survive and the grey water system would probably overflow with excessive use; but I like the idea of experimenting with as many self-sufficient low-tech ideas as possible. After all that’s what this house is all about, getting the most out of the least.

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Alternate Design for Nine Tiny Feet

Michael Janzen — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 08:09:00 +0000

One of the more extreme design concepts I actually want to build is an ultra-tiny house called Nine Tiny Feet. It’s a nine square foot house plus a sleeping loft. It would contain all the necessary things a house needs like a toilet, shower, stove, refrigerator, sink, bed, chair, desk, and some storage. I’ve posted other ideas for how this micro house would look but this new design has been brewing in my head. I took a few minutes to draw it for you.

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Nine Tiny Feet Plan Update

Michael Janzen — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:10:29 +0000

As promised here are the revised plans for Nine Tint Feet. It might not look that much different from the one I posted last night and this morning but this one uses less lumber, will be better insulated, and is built more like panels than normal framed walls. Each wall piece would be build separately and one side (usually the interior) covered in plywood. Then the wall pieces would be assembled. After the house is plumbed and wired the exterior sheathing would be added.

The benefit of doing it this way is that the plywood becomes part of the structure and not just an added surface. This will eliminate the need for so many 2×4 in the corners and should make the whole house stronger. I’m not sure this approach would work well for a larger structure but it should work fine for this micro house. My next step will be to work up a materials list and figure out how much the basic shell will cost to build. Click the image for a closer look.

Nine Tiny Feet – Revised Framing Plan

Michael Janzen — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 16:24:32 +0000

Last night I stayed up late drawing the framing plan of Nine Tiny Feet and posted the work-in-progress plans here at about 1:00 AM. I realized that there had to be a much more efficient way to enclose nine square feet. Well when I woke up I had an idea. Not sure why I’m suddenly obsessed with Nine Tiny Feet; blame it on the arrival of spring.

Instead of framing it like a normal house I think it makes more sense to build panels, screw them together, wire, plumb, insulate, and cover them with the exterior plywood. The bay windows would be built-up separately and insterted into the window openings in the wall panels. The floor and loft would be built similarly. The roof would be framed in the usual fashion. By doing it this way many of the 2x4s in the walls are not needed and there’s more space in the walls, floor, and ceiling for insulation.

I think this will work because it’s so tiny and using the plywood as part of the structural framing will be fine. Here’s the revised framing plan and an exploded view so you can see how the separate pieces would be built and assembled.

Nine Tiny Feet – Plans in Process

Michael Janzen — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 08:27:48 +0000

I’ve really had Nine Tiny Feet on the brain the last few days. This is the ultra tiny design concept I came up with at virtually the same moment I came up with idea for the Tiny Free House. Both houses explore two extremes, one size and the other cost.

Drawing the free house plans recently motivated me to draw up the plans for Nine Tiny Feet… I mean how hard could it be to draw the plans for a nine square foot house? Well like most little things it turned out to be much more difficult than I expected and as this first pass shows. If you frame a micro house like a normal house you use way too much lumber.

As I have it drawn above the walls alone would take over 40 2x4s to build including the bay windows. So I’m going to start thinking of this tiny house more like a big insulated cabinet. It’s so small it has different structural needs than a normal house so then theoretically it should need a different approach to framing.

At the moment I’m thinking about building insulated panels. I’m hoping to finish up the drawing on Sunday night and have a materials list and rough estimate for construction complete. I’m guessing the shell is going to cost less than $500 but we’ll know soon enough.

Nine Tiny Feet 3D Model

Michael Janzen — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:21:11 +0000

I’m really starting to have fun with Google SketchUp. Last weekend I started this drawing simply to give myself practice with SketchUp. Tonight I put the finishing touches on it. It’s a design I came up with last year called Nine Tiny Feet, a nine square foot house. Actually I came up with the Tiny Free House idea and this design at virtually the same time but decided to build the Tiny Free House first. When I finish that house I hope to build this one.

The design includes all the main elements that make up a house. Only the shell is represented in this 3D drawing but the final house would have a toilet, sink, 12VDC cooler, propane heater, bed, chair, fold-down table, and storage. I came up with the size by asking myself how what the absolute minimum amount of space would be needed for someone to live. I did a quick calculation in my head of the amount of space I took up while laying down and came up with nine square feet.

Since I like a design challenge I then asked myself If I’d need anymore space and quickly came up with a couple ways of cramming all essential items into nine square feet. The design you see here is the result of trying a few other ideas. I even built a few models in foam core about a year ago to help me land on this simple approach.

The floor space is 38″ by 34″ which is just shy of nine square feet. Additional space is provided by bay windows which would contain some cabinets and shelves. The loft would provide the sleeping area. Lofts and bay windows are not technically included in square footage so I figured it was fair game to use them to get a tiny bit more space.

The entire main room would be water proof and a shower drain would be installed in the floor allowing the occupant to shower. A composting toilet would site below the hinged bench seating. Clothing and other personal items would be stored in the loft and on high shelves.

The only part I’m not sure how to handle, and I think I’ll need to have it framed before I’ll land on the final solution, is how would I get up into the loft and then close the trap door behind me so my feet don’t hang into the lower area. I guess I’ll just have to built it and figure it out. A 3D model is pretty useful for picturing the concept but some thing just have to be worked out for real.

Anyway I hope you enjoy this crazy idea as much as I do. Below is a video that shows more detail than the image above. I’ve also added 10 screen shots of the 3D drawing to the Nine Tiny Feet project blog if you want to get a better look.