Rainwater Collection and Nine Tiny Feet
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. Continue Reading »
Possible Final Design for Nine Tiny Feet
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.
Nine Tiny Feet – Revised Framing Plan
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.
