Tiny House Blog

Case Turner an avid outdoors person, small camp boater, and Design associate for a Architecture firm is always looking for smaller more efficient products and ideas for everyday life! Case contacted me about these alternative cook stoves and I thought they might be useful in a small space.

StoveTec was created in the fall of 2008 as a not-just-for-profit entity to act as the technology transfer recipient for the Aprovecho Research Center. ARC has worked for 30 years to design and build improved cook stoves and has completed over 100 projects in 60 countries. ARC designed StoveTec stoves with cooks to assure that cooks all over the world would love the stove.

StoveTec Stoves use 40-50% less fuel and reduce emissions by 50-75% compared to cooking with an open fire or unimproved cook stove.

Each stove prevents 60%, or 1.5 tons, of green house gas emissions every year it is used.

You can purchase a Stovetec stove or donate stoves to a country in need by going here. More information on how they are used for humanitarian needs visit the Aprovecho website.

KOMO News in Seattle Washington and Martha Kang write a story about a homeless structure designed to help the homeless in Nickelsville.

The 8-square-foot structure houses the dreams of the residents at Nickelsville.

It’s called a “simple small sturdy sleeping structure,” and each resident hopes to soon call one home.

“It’s sturdy,” said resident Mike Whistler, who helped build the prototype. “It’s a lot better than a tent – I can say that much. And it’s durable.”

Photo Credits: KOMO News

Mike Jones, another Nickelsville resident, designed the structure, and several others help build the prototype, which now proudly sits outside the old Lake City fire station, the current home of the Nickelsville (tent encampment).

A mix-and-match of donated and newly-bought parts, the structure cost roughly $250 to build.

Read the complete story at the KOMO News webpage.

This architectural and design firm in Oslo, Norway has designed everything from bridges to nature observation towers, from swinging platforms to art pieces that release wooden birds or are set on fire. However, Rintala Eggertsson Architects have also designed a few tiny houses…or potential tiny houses.

Sami Rintala and Dagur Eggertsson’s work has been featured all over the world and they pride themselves on designing with a balance between man and nature. Many of their designs incorporate nature as a major element, but also have a modern, industrial feel to them. Their tiny homes in Norway, Italy and Thailand use nature as part of the design. Continue Reading »

I just wanted to update you as to what is going on with our Shelter 2.0 project. We are working towards a goal of sending ten (a twenty foot container full) of our new version of the shelters to Haiti and have a mission group that is willing to ship them for us for only a thousand dollars as well as make sure they get through customs using their in country agents and get them where we would like them to go with their trucks once they get to Haiti.

The new version has metal on it and is we think more fitting to the needs of helping those who need shelter. After being in Haiti this summer it seemed like a crime to give families living under tarps if they were lucky a shelter that relied on the lifespan of another tarp so we designed it to have corrugated metal go around it. The corrugations are cut in the framing so that the metal goes on very easily.

This link will send you to our new website with pictures from our recent fundraiser. We also were in Atlanta recently setting up one of our shelters for a homeless shelter group called the Mad Housers.

Happy Holidays  Robert Bridges

If you are interested in purchasing one for yourself please email Robert at info@shelter20.com.

Bowen Island seems to be an attraction for tiny houses. It’s home to the Eco-Shed by James Glave and is now home to the Quarters house by industrial designer Amanda Huynh in collaboration with Anna Gukov, Lydia Cambron and Emilie Madill. Following nearly a semester of intense research in materials, compact housing and the homelessness epidemic in Vancouver, a full-scale, timber-framed unit was built to house 1-2 residents in need of a simple shelter.

The 8 foot by 8 foot structure has a built-in sleeping loft, a readily available 5-gallon bucket wash basin, a City of Vancouver rain water barrel and modular furniture, which could be easily configured to create a second sleeping space. Because the individual unit does not provide running water or electricity to reduce cost, it would function best in a community of such dwellings with central kitchen/washroom facilities. Continue Reading »

Paul Elkins previously share with us his Cadillac of Homeless Shelters and has come up with an idea for an emergency shelter that I though you would enjoy seeing.

This 12′ by 12′ square shelter design was influenced by the designer of the Hexayurt. This will be my 2011 Burningman shelter for my wife and I. It also has shown possibilities as a rapid deployment cold weather Emergency Shelter.

The design consists of 10-one inch thick 4′x8′ foil backed foam insulation panels. Like the Hexayurt, the panels will be supported with tape only. No structural framing should be needed. (I’m keeping my fingers cross) The design also makes for virtually no waist in construction material. The adjoining corners will be mitered for a tight fit, and when stored it will fold like an accordion into a 4′x8′x10″ thick light weight package. Set-up time shouldn’t take too long as only a few seams need to be tapped once it’s unfolded. To secure the structure from high winds, lines from a small aluminum cap will run down to each corner of the shelter. Continue Reading »