The Solar Decathlon is a biannual competition where 20 university-led teams from around the globe come together and present their latest innovations in solar technology. The entry that best combines affordability, consumer appeal, design excellence, and optimal energy efficiency will be chosen as the winner. Each of these 20 designs will be constructed and put on display from September 23 through October 2, 2011 at the West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C.

While these designs are never tiny, they are always small, so typically good examples of what can be done with less space. But the big take-away for most folks is the concentration of new and old ideas for using solar design to heat, cool, and power our homes. Being able to see so many great designs prototyped in full-scale homes can really help to inspire any future project – no matter how small.

Below are six designs that caught my eye. See all 20 designs at Jetson Green.

Photo credit: All Commercial Photography/U.S. DOE Solar Decathlon.

One of my regular readers, Architect Joseph Sandy, recently submitted a design to the The $300 House Open Design Challenge. It uses CEBs (compressed earth blocks) for the lower portion of the walls and a light wood frame for the upper walls and roof – leveraging the best of both building methods. The roof would be covered with corrugated metal.

CEBs are made in a press – think giant garlic press without the holds. A earthen mixture is placed in the chamber and then using a giant lever the earth is compressed into a block. Below is a short video that demonstrates how CEBs are made.

There are just a few days left in this design competition… take a closer look at Joseph’s design. If you like his approach, be sure to vote. Thanks!

If you’ve been following Tiny House Design for a while you know that I’ve been gearing up to build a tiny home office. I work from home and my family is growing (adopting a baby girl) so I need a somewhat separate space to work during the days. Next week I’ll be taking a week off work and hope to use some of the time to build my tiny home office.

After making time to build it, the hardest part of this project has been deciding what to build. The current thinking is to build a tiny 5×8 foot with a green roof. I’ve never built anything with a green roof before and don’t know much about them, so this might be an incredible mistake.

The walls would be built using standard wood framing, plywood sheathing on the outside and hardboard on the inside. I’d also put some battens on the outside to make it look like is has board-and-batten siding. The roof actually mimics my big house’s design, so it should look like it belongs there – except for the plants on the roof of course.

I’m thinking of using a couple layers of pond liner to keep the water out and giving it a drip-edge of sorts around the inside of the facade. So you might think of it as a raised bed on top of a pond liner shed roof. You can get a better idea of what I’m thinking from the drawings below. You can also Download the SketchUp File but you’ll need to grab a free copy of Google SketchUp to open it.

If anyone out there has any experience with green roofs I’d love some advice and tips. Thanks!

I drew this tiny playhouse as a potential class project for my daughter’s Waldorf kindergarten. It’s looking like we won’t be building it any time soon, but I figured readers of Tiny House Design would enjoy seeing it.

As you can see it’s very simple and measures just 4′x4′. It’s basically a simple deck with 2×6 floor boards, 4×4 posts at the corners that support a 12/12 pitch roof, and 2x2s and lath filling-in some of the openings. But most of the walls are left open to make it easier to watch the children.

You can download the Google SketchUp file if you’d like to get a closer look. To open the file you’ll need to download a free copy of Google SktechUp - 3D illustration software.

On the inside the QB1 is 3x3x3 meters, about 97 square feet. It was designed to generate at least as much electricity as it uses, making it energy-positive. In fact the designers estimate this house, with its 1.48 kW roof mounted photovoltaic system, would pay the owner £1000 per year in FiT income. FiT is the UK Government’s Feed-In Tariff program, which pays an incentive for producing energy from renewable sources.

I requires a grid connection to feed energy back to the grid and a water source. It needs no sewer connection. Waste is either composted or processed on site in a small reed-bed and soak-away.

This is the first prototype of the QB1 and it’s on display at St Andrew’s Square, Edinburgh, as part of the Edinburgh Science Festival. The Cube Project is the creation of Dr Mike Page.

Read more at Jetson Green.

Cube construction from Mike Page on Vimeo.

Dr. Owen Geiger, expert earthbag designer and builder, recently posted the design of this Triple Dome Survival Shelter on his Earthbag House Plans website. It’s designed to house a family for an extended period of time – protected from nuclear radiation, earthquakes, fire, and yes… bullets.

While shelters like this are a dark topic many people prefer to avoid, I think there are an increasing number people, like myself, looking to learn more about what it takes to protect ourselves from threats like radiation. So I really appreciate folks like Owen sharing solutions like this.

This is an incredible design. It provides ample sleeping and storage space, as well as separate living spaces to help the occupants get some privacy from each other during long stays. It could also provide a safe place to sleep once radiation levels had lowered to levels that allowed visits outside.

I just have a few minor modification suggestions:

1. A concealed secondary entrance. Redundancy adds options – just like multiple fire exits in any house.
2. A 90-degree turn in the entrance hallways. Gamma radiation can’t turn corners, so adding a turn in a hallway can help protect the interior of structure. A simple modification in this design could be to thicken the entryway wall strait across from the door to block the radiation coming in from the doorway.
3. A shower in the entryways. It’s essential to avoid ingesting or inhaling fallout because you’re pretty much stuck with it if it gets inside you. Fallout on your skin and clothes can be washed away with soap and water. So washing away fallout before entering the main shelter can keep everyone more insulated from radiation.
4. More thickness at the top of the dome. The earthen sidewall berms and fill between the domes would provide ample shielding. But it looks like there is less than 3-feet of earth at the very peak, which is considered the minimum thickness of compacted earth for a fallout shelter.
5. Ventilation with 90-degree turns. For the same reason I’d put a 90-degree turn in entry hallways I’d want the same in the ventilation system.

Overkill? Yes maybe.

It’s also important to point out that this kind of shelter is overkill for the very low levels of radiation we might experience from distant nuclear reactor meltdowns. It seems designed for much higher levels of radiation.

But it still leaves us wondering how much protection we might need. We know that conventional construction methods provide very little protection, and we know that the more mass we put between us and fallout the better.

So even a typical earthbag dome with 1-foot thick walls would provide far more protection than a normal house. There are lots of good reasons to build with dirt – radiation shielding might not be high on your list of requirements, but it’s nice to know a low-cost option is right under our feet.

Read more about this Triple Dome Survival Shelter at the Earthbag House Plans website. Very nice work Owen!

My time has been in high demand lately… not that I’m complaining. For the past few months Julia and I have been busy taking care of a baby girl through a foster placement. We’re not normally foster parents but when a relative fell on tough times we stepped-up to help. After a long wait at the courthouse yesterday a major legal milestone was passed and it now looks like we’ll be adopting her. I suspect the whole adoption process will be complete by the end of the year.

As our family grows our space needs change. I work from home full time and it’s getting clearer to us that a separate office space is needed. I wouldn’t say we need more space – just a space out of the earshot of all the fun. Imagine being on a conference call with the sound of two dogs barking and two happy children playing and squeaking (at the top of their lungs) in the background.

We’ve also been wanting to build a truly portable tiny house for weekend adventures, so this design would serve as both a home office and weekend cabin.

Requirements

Since my available time is scarce, I kept the design simple enough to build in a few days for as little money as possible. I’m hoping to keep the total cost under $4,000 which will include the cost of a 12-foot dual axle trailer.

I’ve found a local trailer builder that says (on their website) that they can build a 7000# GVW duel axle flatbed trailer for around $1,600. The lumber should also cost about $1,600 and the windows and door should run about $500. That doesn’t leave much room for anything else but it should give me a weather tight shell.

For the office I want both a stand-up and sit-down desk to help get me on my feet more. I’ve been working in front of a computer for almost 14 years now and while the pay is good the sedentary work is beginning to affect my health. Standing up while working seems like one of the little things I can do to continue to move myself in the right direction.

The desks will also need to serve multiple functions when we use the house as a camping cabin. I’ve not worked out the details but theoretically a desk should make a fine dining table and the stand up desk a good pantry or closet.

Later the house will also need to be fitted with a simple bathroom, composting toilet (Nature’s Head), small food prep space, and sleeping space for the four of us. I’m still working on designing a better sleeping arrangement but I think I’m headed in the right direction.

I don’t plan to add plumbing initially. Instead I’ll setup a water jug and drain bucket system for a tiny sink in the food prep area. Dee Williams seemed to make this kind of setup work well for her full time tiny house – so it seems like a good way to go for a camping cabin / home office. I don’t think we need a shower but I could always add plumbing later if needed.

Construction Method

I intend to use a somewhat untested wall and roof assembly method that will reduce the weight while speeding the construction process. I plan to sheath the walls on the exterior and interior with 3/8″ plywood (glued and screwed), but only the interior surface will be installed before the walls go up.

Wiring will be installed from the outside before the insulation, house wrap, and exterior sheathing/siding are installed. I know this is backwards but I think it’s going to work well.

The exterior walls will also be trimmed with battens (ripped from 2x4s) to make the house look like it has a board and batten exterior. I’ll finish the exterior with a rich dark stain and the interior with a lighter stain.

The doors and windows will be stock JELD-WEN wood-framed units I can pick up at my local home improvement store. I’ll be able to paint the the wood frames complimenting colors to the interior and exterior stains. I could save a few bucks by ordering vinyl windows but I’d be stuck with stock colors.

The roof is going to be the most unusual assembly and should blow the minds of some professional builders – well that is if it works – otherwise they’ll just laugh at me (a DIYer to a fault).

I’m planning on laying the interior ceiling plywood onto to top of the walls first, and then installing homemade trusses on top. Then I’ll screw the plywood into the trusses from below, insulate, and finally lift up the exterior sheathing and metal roofing.

I suspect this will make it easier and faster for one person to assemble and keep everything straight since the interior plywood itself will act as a guide. I would not try this method on a larger building, but it seems like a good experiment for this tiny house’s roof.

What is not illustrated in the drawings are all the metal fasteners I plan to use in the floor, walls, and roof. I’ll provide more information on that as I get into the construction.

Next Steps

I should have the cash I need soon and will then put in my trailer order. Once I have the trailer I’ll visit the lumber yard and buy the lumber and other building materials I’ll need.

Then I’ll carve out a long weekend and get to work. I’m going to try to get the house built in three days – at least to a point where I could use it as an office.

Project Plan

Prework

1. Clear and level space on the side yard.
2. Buy trailer.
3. Buy building materials.
4. Complete rough set of plans.

Day One

1. Frame floor, secure to trailer, insulate, sheath.
2. Frame all four walls on the ground nearby.
3. Measure and cut the exterior wall plywood.
4. Measure and cut the roof trusses and plywood.
5. Rip battens from 2x4s.

Day Two

1. Lift walls into place and secure with screws and metal fasteners.
2. Assemble the roof and insulate.
3. Install the metal roofing.

Day Three

1. Install rough wiring from the exterior.
2. Insulate walls, install house wrap and exterior sheathing/siding.
3. Install door and windows.
4. Finish wiring outlets and switches.
5. Bring in a desk, chair, and lamp.

Finish Work

At this point the house will be ready to be used as a home office but will still need finish work that can happen slowly over the following weekends.

1. Install interior and exterior trim.
2. Install battens.
3. Stain exterior and interior.
4. Build porch and steps.
5. Build loft.
6. Build interior walls and add interior bathroom door.
7. Install wood flooring and trim.
8. Build food prep station, stand-up desk, and bed/bench.
9. Add a heater.
10. Add a solar electric system.

What to Expect

I fully expect to begin construction within a few weeks and I won’t be surprised if it takes longer to complete than I hope.

Timing goals aside – I hope to come out at the other end of this project with an example of a tiny house that virtually anyone could build for very little money.

I also plan to record the construction process on video, in photos, and publish a set of plans that should help others build a tiny house like this one.

So stay tuned – this should be fun.

Download

For those of you playing with Google SketchUp, you can download the original ilustration here. Enjoy!

While I currently make my living as a web designer (by day) and tiny house blogger/designer (by night) I was once a full-time studio potter. I mentioned this fact in a post called Daydreaming about Tiny House Pottery.

Colin, also a potter bitten by the tiny house bug, happy to have found a kindred spirit, shared his dream of building a tiny live/work space with me. He’d like to build a tiny house pottery studio and take it on the road by the end of 2011.

The primary design challenge is what to do with all the dust. Pottery studios typically don’t make good live/work spaces because no matter what you do, you have to deal with dust packed with silica, alumina, and all sorts of nasty little particles. Even when you work with non-toxic materials the dust is so fine it gets everywhere which can lead to respiratory troubles.

To solve this problem Colin is currently thinking that a tiny house split into two separate spaces with entrances at each end of the house would keep the dust in its place. Pictured here is a drawing Colin drew using Google SketchUp. To get the 2D view he exported the image after selecting the top down view (Camera > Standard Views > Top).

The living space would contain a small kitchen, desk/table, seating, and a wet bath. The sleeping loft would extend over the pottery studio since the added ceiling height is not needed in there.

Heating a small space like this with a wood stove would be a little tricky for a number of reasons – fire proofing being the most important – but I think it could be done. Potters are fairly clever with fire so I imagine Colin has some ideas brewing in the back of his head like using ceramic fiber board or other high-temperature kiln materials to keep the heat where it belongs.

The studio space would provide just enough room for a potters wheel and shelving. I imagine he’ll finish the inside of the studio in a way that facilitates the occasional wash-down. He’ll leave the kiln behind and rent kiln space from other potters while on the road.

Thanks again for sharing this with us Colin!

Juliet, the principal architect at Jibe Design, shared this clever container-based home design with me and thought it might be interesting to readers of Tiny House Design. I think she’s absolutely right and applaud her for this new take on shipping container based homes.

The main design challenge was to squeeze a small off-grid home into a 15-foot wide city lot. Shipping containers are 8-feet wide, so immediately you might see how some creative solutions would be needed. After all if you placed two containers side-by-side they would extend one foot beyond this tiny space.

So she teamed up with Naquib Hossain, a frequent collaborator, and produced this novel solution. Stack two shipping containers and cut a third diagonally to open the interior space up while maximizing the available lot size. This approach resulted in an interior that measures 628 square feet on two levels, made from three 30-foot shipping containers.

While this diagonal cut and stacking would add to the fabrication effort, it should definitely help the home feel a lot less like a narrow metal box. The total expected cost to build this home is $50,000.

Here’s what Juliet says about the project:

The Free Agent House explores the urban possibilities of living efficiently and affordably “off the grid.” The home is constructed of three shipping containers sliced and stacked to fit on a fifteen foot wide city lot.  The efficient layout maximizes passive heating and cooling. Glazing on the southern frontage receives the winter sun and sliding louvers block the summer heat.  Vacuum-insulated-panels super-insulate the building envelope’s tight perimeter and achieve an exceptional R-value with minimal thickness. A seasonal heat collector augments the passive heating system.

Low voltage appliances run off a rooftop photovoltaic array.  The sun also heats the home’s water.  The only municipal utilities the home connects to are the water and sewar systems.  A stormwater collection cistern irrigates the extensive vegetable garden.  At an estimated price of $50k, the building houses a free agent, liberated from high construction and operating costs.

Jibe Design built a physical model of their design, a rarity now that computer renderings have become the norm. Stuart Goldenberg of Goldenberg Photography shot pictures of the house model as an art project.  Stuart’s photographs expand the project.  The photographs express a certain melancholy and sense of silence.

When asked “Is that cost estimate achievable?”, she answered, “The cost has been rigorously analyzed.  The key to the low cost is the client himself – a skilled craftsman in many trades – who will build much of the project with his own hands.”

To learn more visit Jibe Design. Photo credit to Goldenberg Photography.

It’s always nice to hear a story of someone turning sour lemons in lemonade. In this case it’s a tiny house design concept called The Beetle House. In October of 2010 a team at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC entered The Beetle House into the 10 Square Design Competition where it came in number two of 39 entries.

The beetle implied by the project’s name is the mountain pine beetle, which has already eaten its way through 16.3 million hectares of forest in British Columbia. It’s a tiny cylindrical-shaped beetle, about the size of a grain of rice; but once a tree is infested these little buggers can kill it in less than 30 days.

So this university team, (Dale Parkes, Geoffrey Bowe, Ron McGivern, Ashok Mathur, Murray Young, and Michael Mehta), came up with a tiny house design that uses beetle-killed pine as its primary building material and heating fuel.

The complete story of The Beetle House is available at The Flying Shingle. Michael passed the plans and illustrations onto me too, see below. Thanks again Michael!

Dr. Michael Mehta is an Environmental Sociologist who specializes in health and environmental risk issues. He is the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC. With his wife Kathy, Michael spends time at his house on Gabriola Island whenever possible. His blog can be found at arts.blog.mytru.ca.