Lightweight Tiny House Concept
One of my regular readers, Grant, sent me this design challenge. I have a lot of personal interest in it because I’ve been day dreaming of building a small lightweight tiny house for taking my family (Julia, Katie, and me) on short road trips. It would also make visits to the family farm more comfortable. Here’s what Grant asked for:
I want a structure that will be comfortable for one, contain all amenities (shower, toilet, cooking area with stove and small fridge), be comfortable year round, and here is the real kicker, small and light enough to be towed by a Toyota Corolla (1500lbs capacity). I wonder what kind of creative solutions we could get for something like this.
Initially I’m picturing some sort of pop up, with a foot print of 10 x 6, to allow for a 6×3 bath in the rear, and a 6×7 main room. The main room will be dominated by a table which takes up half the area lengthwise. The bed sits on the table for sleeping, but gets lifted to the roof for storage, revealing a cooking surface. Parts of the table can lift up for under counter storage.
I’m not sure a popup is really doable and might have issues with being weather tight. So I decided to start by investigating what a small traditionally framed house would weigh and quickly discovered that even a house of this size would be much more than 1,5000 pounds. Here’s the simple design and snap shot of the incomplete spreadsheet I started. I stopped doing the math calculations when I realized it was going to weigh much more than 1,500 pounds when you factor in the trailer.
Who’s Next Entry – Version 3 (Final)
Below is my final design for Who’s Next Competition. I really want to thank everyone who made suggestions and provided feedback. I think that this final design achieves the best balance while maintaining the tiny house cluster concept.
The public voting begins tomorrow and you’ll have a chance to review all the submissions. Entries are still being added to Free Green’s system but I took a quick look and there are some very clever designs but many pro architects… so the competition is definitely steep.
Tomorrow I’ll post a link and instructions for voting and I hope after looking through the other entries you’ll still vote for mine 
. Just kidding vote for the best design. In the mean time here is what I submitted. I’ll write more about my final design decisions tonight.
Who’s Next Entry – Version 2
Below is the updated design for my Who’s Next Competition entry. At first you’ll probably think it’s an entirely different house but when you compare the floor plan to the first version you’ll quickly realize they are pretty much the same… just in a slightly different arrangement.
All the changes were made as a result of reader feedback in comments and directly though email. The main themes I heard were:
- Improve accessibility.
- Add an optional method to move from space to space in winter.
- Add an optional garage.
- Reduce the total square footage.
- The modular approach is not as efficient as a simple house of the same square footage.
- Open up the covered patio.
For the next round I’m going to refocus my attention on specific features, make them the priority, and bring more cohesiveness to this tiny house cluster. But I do like what’s happening with the courtyard and can see making that the focal point and possibly adding a covered walkway all the way around.
So take a look at this awkard phase 2 and let me know what you think. Thanks Again!
Who’s Next Entry – Version 1
I’m not sure how your 2010 is going but mine feels like it’s flying by a little too fast. I looked up from my work for a moment and noticed that the deadline for the Who’s Next Competition is almost here. I’ve been working on some ideas and finally cleaned them up enough to share with you. Over the next few days I’ll post iterations to the design based on reader feedback. My hope is that by Monday I’ll have a design that’s a strong contender.
The competition is steep, 400 other designers have entered and I’m certain many of them are professional architects. I’m also trying to compete against people who are designing big houses (competition limit is 1800 square feet). I imagine that the general public may have a little difficulty accepting my proposal but I wanted to stay true to tiny house design.
What you’re looking at is a cluster of 4 tiny buildings that I think would not only meet the competition design requirements but provide Free Green an extremely popular set of plans.
Sawtooth Saltbox
The following is a guest post and house design from one of my regular readers, Craig Moorhouse. As you can see the design isn’t exactly tiny but contains so many great ideas and detail I asked Craig if for permission to share it with you. Thanks again Craig!
I sent a handful of Google SketchUp drawings of a modular container home concept that I’ve had for a few months now to Michael at his Tiny Home Design website. The home has a floor plan of just under 1000 sq. ft and isn’t tiny (or small for that matter) but Michael found worth in these drawings because of the work I put into the home’s detail and because it showcases the possibilities of what can be done with this 3 dimensional drawing tool.
