Tiny House Design

I was researching ideas for my own home office cube design and ran across this garden workspace on materialicious. It is located in Chile and was designed by architects Claudio Labarca and Juan Ignacio Lopez. The interior space measures 5 by 7 meters which is about 375 square feet.

I’m really impressed with the wood shutters that provide privacy and shade during hot days. When closed or open they make a strong design statement and provide a geometric exterior texture. I also like that the owner has a choice of direct or filtered light.

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Julia and I have decided last weekend to seriously consider building a tiny office for me in our backyard. I work from home full-time and use a bedroom in the house as my office. The only trouble is that when the dogs are barking, or Katie is playing loudly, it gets a little difficult to be on a conference call. The space I have out back is limited but there is one spot for an 8×8 tiny house. So I started drawing up some ideas for 8x8x8 structures. This is the first design which I drew last Sunday.

It’s desgned to require little cutting of the plywood sheathing and includes some unusual windows. I think the final office will have larger windows and larger overhang but it was fun exploring the cube shape. The roof in this drawing is designed to make it look flat from ground level but it is in fact slightly pitched to the back over the door. You can download the Google SketchUp file to get a better look if you have Google SketchUp on your computer.

These tiny houses are vacation rentals designed to provide very comfortable accommodations for those who want to get-out while not giving up all the comforts of home. On their website they describe these cubes as being an excellent way for hotel operators to expand their business affordably while offering a completely different kind of accommodation. They are available in France (initially) and will probably be offered in other places across Europe in the near future.

I’ve always thought that tiny houses would make great rentals especially for people looking to explore a simpler life. I can actually imagine a small cluster of homes like these as a little bed and breakfast. In fact it would seem like a nice way to transition to a simplified life for the owner. The income from the B&B could theoretically offset the cost of the property, improvements, construction, and operation. Continue Reading »