Tiny Housing Movement: The Tiny House Movement

It is said that “the tiny house on wheels expands economic freedom to geographic freedom in that people can take it with them if they decide to move across the country.” This home becomes a convenient way of living for those who love the on-the-go lifestyle. The interior design of these homes also plays a huge roll in the mobility of them. The purpose of these homes is to "carve out all the unusable space and make sure all the space offered is usable, maybe for several different purposes" (Gillette). Tiny home contractors have innovative ideas that combine several functions into one appliance. These inventions offer a unforgettable living experience to tiny home buyers offering installations such as: "well-placed skylights, tables that turn into beds, stacked drawers that double as stairs" ("Teeny House, Big Life"). The average person is able to live in these houses without lacking the everyday necessities. Tiny home transform the focus of life to a self-reliant, simplistic lifestyle. Along with the extremely suitable mobility of these homes, many civilians claim that "living low-rent (or with a micro-mortgage) is a definite draw."

Just as many people across the country are looking to tiny homes as an affordable housing option, there are also many communities that are looking to tiny house villages as a method of providing affordable living options for the homeless in their cities. These small villages of tiny homes, usually built by volunteers, answer many of the housing issues faced by cities with little affordable housing options and overwhelming homeless populations. These tiny house villages, however, are often plagued with challenges such as conflicting city ordinances, building codes, and zoning plans. Tiny Houses for the Homeless: An Affordable Solution Catches On by Ericka Lundahl, published in Yes! Magazine, February 2014 looks at the costs, solutions, and

With Habitat houses, the location is where land is available for private housing. This is important since the house are for people to own, not rent. Studies have shown that people who “own houses rather than rent apartments are happier in life” (Suen 50). Since many applicants live in apartments, this is a positive change for them. Habitat sometimes buys land where houses were started, but not completed. In these cases, Habitat finishes the started houses, and they are built to Habitat standards in regards to energy efficiency. Habitat families are then put into these houses. Then, Habitat uses the rest of the land to build their houses. Through the creation of these houses, the future homeowners meet each other, thus creating a strong community. “Strong communities tend to keep crime out” (Fuller and Scott 78), and since some people apply for Habitat houses due to unsafe neighborhoods in addition to economic need, their fears can be set aside. This allows people to enjoy their new home, as they would not have to fear that someone would break into their house if they were gone. However, sometimes the location of Habitat houses is inconvenient. The applicants are unable to choose where their house is built, so it may be on the other side of the city from where they work. Nevertheless, they would own a house, and thus, having a stable address could make it “entirely possible that they would change jobs to a location

Home ownership, the cornerstone of the American Dream, remains the most significant milestone of American life. However, what do you do when your family needs change? When, because of a family addition, that charming little house for two lovebirds needs to add a few more bedrooms and bathrooms. While many families may decide to relocate, others have discovered that custom home renovations make the most sense for them. Homeowners who love their familiar neighborhoods and communities choose to remodel because they have everything they want except for a few more square feet, larger kitchen, more closets, or updated bathroom.

The more and more popular tiny house movement had been mooted as a possible way out of some housing price level issues. The movement started in the United States in the late 1990s, mostly due to housing affordability problems, the global financial meltdown with the plans to live more sustainably. At the time, the tiny house movement was early small and localized; previously decade, it has become significantly mainstream.

Recycling waste; reuse or repurpose furniture and other materials; use trash contractor; and make compost.

Architecture’s overall goal is defined as a structure that supports a roof. However, David A. Smith, the founder of the Affordable Housing Institute (AHI), argues that the ideal home structure should provide much more than simply a roof. The Harvard Business Network has designed a home for the less fortunate that costs a minuscule overall price of three hundred dollars. This crafty home structure provides not only a safe and secure roof, but a water filter, a mosquito nets, a solar panel, a solar cooker, built in furniture, a tablet PC, and charger. The poor living in ghettos around the world, wrecked by natural disaster and generations of crippling poverty, cannot expect this from their cardboard and plastic

Currently, I am a resident of Garden Park Apartments. Garden Park apartments is a stunning apartment community located on 10 acres in Fayetteville, Arkansas (Cook, 2017). This community is within an easy walking distance of the University of Arkansas and Dickson Street. It includes an Olympic-sized pool with spa, a fully equipped fitness center, a lighted tennis court, and many other features. Even though this community provides an excellent environment for residents to live, the complex lacks a recycling program, and hence an access to proper bins for collecting recyclable material. Many of the residents seem to consider sustainability as important as having a great environment to

Second, micro homes, known by many as Tiny Homes, are homes considered to be under 500 square feet. Banks won 't finance tiny houses––any house smaller than four hundred square feet is difficult to mortgage––and, in addition to being tricky to occupy legally, the houses are excluded from many R.V. parks because they 're too tall (Wilkinson, A. 2011). All Micro Homes are designed the way a normal family home would be designed. A Micro Home has the necessities such as: A bathroom, a kitchen, a bedroom, and a living room. The households are mainly built for single individuals who are just starting off on their own, does not want to live in a fancy home, or a person who is unable to be

Are Tiny Houses a key to Nantucket's housing shortfall? Many believe tiny houses are the solution to Nantucket's shortage of homes. While the opponents would suggest tiny homes will make Nantucket look like a trailer park. Though that may not be the case, a few modifications onto the house and it could look like a cottage. The best solution for this crisis are tiny houses because they provide a home that anyone can build and because of not having a mortgage and the mobility it provides. .

Where composting pick up isn 't available, money can still be saved. In Rhode Island, Johnson and Wales University 's culinary school invested in a high tech composting machine in their kitchen. Although the initial investment was substantial, the university is already saving money. Specifically, they expect for the machine to pay for itself in 5 years because they don’t send trash to Rhode Island Central Landfill (Luebsdorf).

When building a home, the advantages to large builders are well-documented. Big builders have "deep pockets." They can exploit economies of scale, leveraging this into supply-chain influence and getting discounts on materials (ideally, passing these savings along to the buyer) as a result.

While it might sound impossible that a house can work for you, it is further from the truth. We are in a society of cookie cutter homes that are nothing but a box that must be hooked into a grid and multiple external systems in order to create a house that the average person could live in. Michael Reynolds, is the master mine behind a new way of constructing homes. The homes he creates are called Earthships. Don’t let the celestial name deter you, these homes are made to support every need a person has without any help from outside sources; the homes are completely self-sufficient. Population is on the rise and the demand for homes, utilities, and food is an

Google SketchUp offers some great tools to use, and you can visit various websites showing tiny home designs in order to inspire your creativity.

In light of this, it is important for us to re-think our strategies for housing the poor, and to re-visit some of that traditional building wisdom, in which people and communities were the key agents in building and upgrading their housing, and local materials and local building techniques were their inexpensive and environmentally-sustainable tools to do that.