The politics of tiny houses

There is a lot in this interview. About building codes, the politics of control, sacred architecture, camping, freedom and even art.

 

Christmas cutie

A cute little off-grid “eco-retreat”, that looks like a stack of logs when all locked up. I’m finding more and more structures that are not trying to deliver a whole whizz-bang house for the adventurous off-gridder, but rather a simple retreat space. I like this move towards temporary.

(Note: the music is awful, I recommend you turn the sound off)

The front deck folds up and down, depending on usage, effectively disguising the cabin as a massive stack of neatly cut wood.YETA features a mini-kitchen and mini-bathroom with a boat toilet and shower.  With carbon-based filters, rainwater is filtered for use, while black water is collected in a tank.

It’s earthquake-proof and built with larchwood on a layer of insulation.  Six photovoltaic modules cantilever flush with the roof line and power all of the hut’s functions, such as LED lighting, electrically-operated venetian blinds, ventilation fans, and a 24-volt central unit for the entry keypad, motion sensors, and environmental sensors.

 

Mobile structures and other creative projects

I just had to share these. Most have been conceived as a creative response to a specific place or as a commissioned project, and they aren’t for living in, but I love them.

Manufactured Home 1996 by Simparch 10’ x 32’ x 8’
plastic sheathing, twigs, plastic twine, cable ties, plywood, cinder blocks, lights, video

Manufactured Home prompted dialogue between traditional dwelling in the West and the contemporary conditions of home making. This tenuous sign of a mobile home was hand crafted from a combination of recycled and natural materials. Discarded white plastic packaging from new manufactured home shipments was grommetted and woven onto the framework, a grid of sticks from the weed-like “tree of heaven” which were joined together with cable-ties. The work merged traditional and contemporary building processes, the manufactured environment, and a site-specific sensibility to the culture of southern New Mexico where the work was created. Viewers toured the interior or experienced it as a large illuminated structure — an ethereal beacon in the night.

M.I.K.E. (Music Integrated Kiosk Environment) by municipalWORKSHOP

Located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin at the Kohler Arts Center. A commissioned project of the Connecting Communities Program, M.I.K.E. was completed in August of 2006.

M.I.K.E. is an interdisciplinary, architectural sculpture that celebrates the physical and cultural landscape of the Upper Midwest. Operating as a mobile sculpture, a public performance space, and a community-based music program, M.I.K.E. engages public space through visual and sonic creativity. The sculpture is designed to function as an interactive sound recording studio, is outfitted to record various audio experiences including music, oral histories, and sound art works, and also transforms into a three tier performance stage.

© Matthew Venables 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Gwago patabagun – We will eat presently, 2010, by Tessa Zettel & Karl Khoe

Durational site-specific installation including mobile food cart and apiary (found materials, steel, timber, bicycle wheels, solar panel, cooking equipment, beehive with native stingless bees, local honey), public picnics

 

Some inspirational words

Escaping the Race: Shifting to a New Cultural Paradigm

a post by Ziggy at Sustainablog, which deserves reproducing in full, because it is inspirational, and centering.

Deep down, you know what you need to do. Deep down, it’s obvious that this isn’t the life we were meant to live. We didn’t evolve over millions of years to wreak new levels of havoc on the world year after year and sink further and further into unhappiness at the same time.

There’s no reason to continue on with a lifestyle that you don’t believe in. You can leave it behind and create your own life.

Wealth is not measured in your wallet.

You can’t buy your way to happiness and satisfaction.

Less is more.

Deep down, you already know this.

But it’s time to embrace it.

We weren’t born to waste our time doing things that don’t benefit our well-being. Commuting to work, office jobs, shopping, and television do nothing to enrich our lives.

Wake up early and watch the sun rise over the horizon and then ponder why you’re spending hours a week at a job that you hate so that you can simply afford to pay rent, pay for gas, pay for things that keep you stuck in the vicious cycle of consumer culture.

Why do you spend more than half the day away from your loved ones, away from your family? Is it any wonder we are so isolated and dysfunctional in our family settings?

Why are we so wrought with problems on all scales? Is this really the apex of humanity? Crumbling ecosystems, economic collapse, broken relationships, fears of the future?

Go with what your gut is telling you: this life isn’t working, it’s broken, it’s time to create a new paradigm.

We all have that knowledge, whether we realize it or not. It’s up to you to make the move, though, because no one is going to tell you when or how.

Be brave.

 

Henhouse Hilton with a green roof!

In 2007, Snyder and his girlfriend, Shelley Martin, moved from Brooklyn to a 1924 craftsman bungalow in Portland, Oregon. “We were so excited 
to have a yard and a garden,” Snyder recalls. Martin, who is an architectural designer, put her green thumb to work, and in little time they had lettuce, radishes, snap peas, onions, carrots, potatoes, and other produce poking up through the soil. Then, a good friend and fellow New York transplant opened an organic farm supply store in town. “She got us excited about having chickens as an extension of our garden,” Snyder says. Soon, he was drafting plans in Google SketchUp for a backyard chicken coop.

 

Snyder finished the sleek-looking box with reclaimed cedar siding and ventilated it with two upper windows. On top, he added a green roof: “The living roof helps keep the coop cool, but mostly it was a chance to experiment and design something fun.”

Inside, the coop is lined with oriented strand board (OSB) and fitted with cans of food and water. Though Snyder designed a large door so he and Martin can access the inside of the coop to clean it, he forgot that to get to the door, they’d have to crawl through the chickens’ run. “That’s the one think I would have changed,” he says. “We’re both pretty short but we still have to crouch down to get through.” 

Photos by:John Clark 

Read more: Coop Dreams on Dwell

 

Rural architectural oddities

Mysterious and ugly/beautiful images with no accompanying information by Kurt Wagner and Richard Saxton from a gorgeous publication, Art Lies:

 

Tiny apartment in Hong Kong

Architect Gary Chang decided to design a 344 sq. ft. apartment to be able to change into 24 different designs, all by just sliding panels and walls. He calls this the “Domestic Transformer.”

 

Beautifully Simple Container Retreat

Photographer: Logan MacDougall Pope

Apparently this building is constructed only from things found on site.

Located on an army training camp, this simple container solution was designed by Damith Premathilake and built by soldiers with materials found in the area.  It’s now become “the ideal destination for the traveler seeking a relaxing and rustic vacation.“

 

Posting again – Green porn

Ok I thought I may as well keep this rolling. So I’m just going to post links and article about housing that I like, etc.

From Treehugger, a house in NSW, Australia. This is a skillion roof. Very like the early plans for the house, now shelved, because the site is too beautiful to be built on!

 

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