November 05, 2004

personal_space. Tiny houses for the thrifty-chic.

(via crasch on del.icio.us)

posted by pmdboi 20 years ago
  • Last year I read an article on very small homes featuring a 225 square-foot Santa Monica condo. That sounds spacious compared to the smallest "personal space," but I notice that it's smaller than the large size which doesn't come with its own bath & kitchen.
  • I have two concerns I`ve never found any info on. 1) What is the amount of breathable airspace necessary for healthy habitation in a dwelling. 2)Has there ever been any studies on crime rate in relation to square footage of a current housing and/ or square footage of housing while growing up for the "criminal". The latter would be an interesting social commentary concerning population growth.
  • Where do you go to the bathroom?
  • pyrrthon - that was my thought. It's not a fully functional house otherwise. (Any Sims player could tell you that.) My apartment is 750 sq. feet, with two bedrooms and one bathroom. Not bad actually - good for two roomates, large for a couple.
  • Pretty sure that you don't go to the bathroom, unless you choose to make it a bathroom. The suggestions for it seemed to be to make it an office, an in-law quarters, or your own mobile home for travelling. I would make it a shed.
  • It'd make a pretty crappy shed though. Honey, could you get my lawnmower? I think I left it on the acrylic coffee table in the shed. Just be careful of the brazilian bloodwood floor when you pull it out of the pivoting picture-window...
  • It's just about perfect for making Chinese tea though. I'd junk the stupid table, throw in some tatami, and a low wooden table for placing the tea set. Put the spirit burner stove and kettle for hot water where that lamp is, and I'm all set. Other than that, I really think it's too small for anything else, except two sleeping bags.
  • Where do you go to the bathroom? Rather like a somthing out of a bad Heinlein novel (and, even for fans, is there any other kind, really?) I'd love to live in a small condo that was mostly bathroom: hot-tub, sauna, shower, w.c., and then a small bed, kitchenette, small armoire, and a very big window with blinds. That's really all I'd need.
  • Really all you need for a home is a warm, dry place to sleep, cook, bathe, and poop. Most of the space in our homes is for stuff. I like stuff.
  • I live up inside my own ass. But when I have to go poopy, there's nowhere to get out of the way.
  • park this for the full combo.
  • cheap, however. $6975 for the 8x8 model. that works out to $975 for the shed and $6000 for the chic.
  • Stirfry beat me to the punch. While the house sounds like a nifty idea, the fact that it is aimed more towards the shed crowd then the housing crowd (they talk about houses with added on plumbing, but feature no pictures), speaks to me that this is a luxury product rather then economical living. Looking over the construction pictures, this looks like it would be a nifty (and probably cheaper) home construction project. Something for the summer, perhaps.
  • If I had the land and really wanted a tiny stylish house, I'd check the fab list first. Loftcube, anyone?
  • You could always make ReadyMade Magazine's Shack. They sell plans.
  • Oh, nice! The Little House is pretty much exactly what I've been wanting to put in the corner of my (tiny) backyard, except I'll need a couple more windows. I think I'll take a good look at the pics, and that'll help me design it and squirrel away materials over the winter. I'll build it myself next spring for far less than seven thousand buckos. (And I'll still use the pooper in the big house.) It'll serve two purposes: summer hangout, winter woodshed. Given that eight by eight is smaller than most beach-cabins and many bathrooms, I agree that most people probably couldn't manage to live in one of these.
  • Aw jeez -- the ReadyMade shack's pretty nice, too, thanks for that link. But I think it has a bit too much glass for my neighborhood. 'Twould be a fine thing in a field on a hill in the country.
  • but where do you put your cats and dog and lover?
  • I refuse to live in anywhere with an underscore.
  • When I moved to Seattle from the South, I was rather surprised at the popularity of studio apartments up here. Now, after nearly three years of living in one, I understand their attraction; though I don't think I'd like my living arrangements nearly as much if I didn't have a murphy bed conserving space. The tiny house lacks the necessary practicality of a true living space, which limits it to little more than an example of design masturbation. The floor's beautiful though.
  • Thank you Cali. weeHouse is wonderful. Glide House is a dream. I'm sort of puzzled by the enthusiasm for shipping container-based habitats, but even those are impressive.