Yesterday we wrapped up our Summer 2015 Tiny House Design-Build class at Yestermorrow. After A Week of Tiny House Design-Build our students had their noggins full of considerations and their drafting tables full of bubble diagrams, inspiration boards, and sketches. The tiny house shell we constructed had its two long walls framed and sheathed and we were ready to put up the end walls.
This past week everything seemed to accelerate. In the field, we framed and sheathed the end walls, put up the rafters, sheathed the roof, installed the storage loft joists and decking, and installed the interior walls and the bed platform. (This tiny house is available for sale! If you’re interested in learning more, please contact Mark at Yestermorrrow.)
In the design studio, students synthesized their design ideas into drawings and models. Three special guests, Mac Rood, Kathy Myer and Chris Cook, all architects, joined me for desk critiques in the evenings to serve as sounding boards for the volley of ideas and questions. It’s always remarkable to me to see how everyone’s designs evolve over two weeks as they wrangle their hopes and needs into spaces that could facilitate the lifestyles they desire. We even snuck in another field trip to the fabulous and well-thought-out home of Ethan Waldman of The Tiny House.
As I noted last time I taught Less Is More, Presentation Day is always a bit like Xmas morning for me. There’s so much anticipation and so much delight in seeing our students designs revealed! I’m especially a sucker for the elegant details everyone comes up with!
This time around we had a variety of tiny houses on wheels with clever ideas such as:
- A closet tucked under a raised bed with drawers that interact with the stairs
- A workbench for projects the length of an end wall
- A mosaicked shower under a sleeping loft with a peek-a-boo view
- Rotating quarter-moon disks to increase counter space in a kitchen
- Rock climbing holds to access a loft
- A swooping countertop with a corner sink
- A fabulous customized desk
- A movable wall that transforms a space into three different rooms
We also had a set of ground-bound structures, including:
- A speakeasy-inspired summerhouse
- A long rectangular house that plays with windows to bring outside in
- A fire-tower inspired octagonal book and puzzle library
- A backyard yoga hut
- A family farm house with a courtyard
- A cozy addition to a fifth generation lake house
I look forward to seeing some of these designs become reality over the next couple years!
Next up for me: spending the weekend with some VT friends (and maybe lending a hand with a tiny SIPs house), a couple days in GA to discuss tiny house feasibility in Atlanta, and then a flight to CO so I can speak about tiny house community with Lee Pera of Boneyard Studios at the Tiny House Jamboree. There are nearly 10,000 people pre-registered! See you there!