Take a look at the new Shedworking HQ
Alex at Shedworking has picked a winner, actually two, for his Shedworking HQ contest. The design on the left is a floating shed with a green roof submitted by Paul at Roomworks and on the right a design submitted by John at secrets-of-shed-building. While my submission didn’t win I’m still very excited to see so many people share their ideas. It’s exciting to see small shed and house design opening up and watching the ideas flow. My personal favorite was actually the shed cluster submitted by Joseph Sandy. Visit Shedworking to learn more about the winners.
Shed Cluster by Architect Joseph Sandy
You might recall that Alex at Shedworking recently moved and now needs a new garden office shed. Just for fun he’s running a little design competition and has received several proposals but this shed cluster caught my eye. It was designed by architect Joseph Sandy. You might also remember the shed Joseph built out of mostly reclaimed building materials that was featured a couple weeks ago on Tiny House Blog. 
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Help design the new Shedworking Headquarters
Alex, the fellow behind Shedworking, is running a little shed design competition. He recently moved leaving his old shed behind and now needs a new backyard shed to serve as headquarters for Shedworking. You don’t have to be a designer, everyone is welcome to participate and he’s accepting illustrations or written descriptions. For complete details visit Shedworking.
Just for fun, and to help spark imaginations, I’ve posted a simple Google SketchUp 3D file with 10 sheds (tiny houses). Feel free to download the file and create you’re own original drawing or build on one of the houses/sheds already started in the file. I’m still working on my submission and will post it here on Tiny House Design sometime this next week. Continue reading to download the SketchUp file and see all 10 designs. Continue Reading »
Tiny Dogtrot House
After all the great feedback from my Two Sustainable Sheds post another variation began to develop in my mind based on a dogtrot house; which is two small houses connected by a breezeway under a common roof. I have to thank Tim for mentioning this… I had never heard the term before and now it’s stuck in my head.
As you can see it contains many similar features like a rain water collection system, solar panels on the roof, two small sheds, and some exterior living space. The main differences are that this house has windows on the south side for passive solar heating, awnings over those windows to block out the summer sun, and the exterior space is covered by the long overhanging eves that create the covered breezeway.
The sheds would still be built as separate structures making this a project that would require no permits in many communities. But please check you local codes before building anything without permits. The deck between the two sheds would also be separate so there would be not physical connection between the sheds of any kind except for the rain gutters that feed the water storage tank.
Shed Cluster Concept
I had this simple idea a few years ago. In many communities small sheds do not require building permits. So theoretically someone could build a few sheds to augment their current living space or even serve as their complete living space, if that was allowed in their community. In most communities sheds not considered dwellings, so living in a shed might draw some attention from neighbors and the local planning department. To avoid trouble please be sure to research your local building codes before building a shed cluster.
I’ve drawn four simple 8×12 sheds with a simple roof. This would be a very inexpensive group of structures to build. I’m actually noodling over how one would build this using homemade structural panels. I’ll post the details on that once I work them out.
