sustainable

Self-Contained Ecological Living Module Installed in Two Days

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Many designers and architects have been creating small structures to meet futuristic ecological challenges. However, some designers are going above and beyond a miniature escape pod. The new Ecological Living Module (ELM) has been designed to demonstrate strategies for residential construction that meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) … Read more

Sustainable AVAVA Systems as Tiny Houses

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What first began as an art project at Burning Man 2006 (the Sugar Cube) is now becoming another option for an efficient tiny house. AVAVA Systems, a San Francisco company, engineers buildings for the future that are simple yet beautiful. The AVAVA prefab Britespace house was built in a factory … Read more

Tiny House For Sale: Eco Savvy and Family Friendly

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Combat veteran, Lucas Berard, finds peace in the tiny house lifestyle while reaching out to empower other veterans to do the same. Lucas is easy to spot from just about anywhere in Dancing Rabbit Eco-village. (He’s the beefy guy wearing a florescent orange t-shirt.) I recently found him working in … Read more

Happy, Simply – A Lifestyle Model and Education Project.

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happy simple life

Debt free – healthy, happy, and with lots of friends. Where the best things in life are not things, where less is more and, where just enough is plenty! The lifestyle model includes: Sustainable living – shelter, food, water, energy, transport, waste, environment Community participation – volunteering, active citizenship Education … Read more

Log Pod

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A few years ago, Kent covered the Pod, an innovative and mobile tiny house designed primarily for camping. Another company in the United Kingdom has upped the ante on this type of building with the Log Pod, a portable wooden structure that comes in two beautiful designs. The Log Pod … Read more

St. Croix Expat Home

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Not that I’m looking to move to a tropical island anytime soon, but when winter comes along…sometimes it’s nice to dream about becoming an expat in paradise. Instead of dreaming, this is what Nate Olive of Atlanta did. After a few life changes, he moved to the beautiful island of … Read more

The ecoPerch

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Treehouses have been making the news lately with Deek Diedrickson’s “Wolfe’s Den” and Joel Allen’s HemLoft. Across the pond, the ecoPerch is a new tiny house design based on a treehouse from the Blue Forest company in the U.K. This beautiful structure is designed to fit into the natural surroundings … Read more

Small Home. Big Life

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By Ben Hurst Hello, my name is Ben, a 31 year old music teacher. I live in Southeast Louisiana and in the past four years I have been on a journey to create an easier life for myself. From growing a garden, raising chickens, ducks, and rabbits, to aquaponics. I … Read more

Charleston Tiny House

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Andrea Tremols and Cedric Baele of Charleston, S.C. spent a year researching tiny homes at their local library and on the web before they decided to actually build one. Then they tore it down and started over. The couple is attempting to build the house out of 90 percent reclaimed lumber and materials while still utilizing every bit of space they can in order to obtain their ultimate goal of more conscientious living on the Earth.

After graduating from college, the couple lived communally as organic farm volunteers in Europe. As a child in his native Belgium, Cedric lived on a 38 foot steel sailboat, and after school he lived in a re-built 27 foot sailboat in Charleston Harbor. So the 200 square foot home they are building will not be a far stretch. The couple (Cedric is a seasonal bicycle tour guide and Andrea is a Spanish teacher) also knew that they did not want to go into 30 years of debt for a home during an uncertain economy.

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Reclaimed Space

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Guest Post by Tracen Gardner

I came up with the idea for Reclaimed Space when I needed a living space on my ranch outside Shiner, Texas. There was no electricity or running water on the site, which is located 15 minutes from the nearest hardware store. I did not want to use all that energy driving back and forth and was concerned with not only with time constraints but also the confusion involved in meeting sub contractors in a remote area. I was afraid of not completing the project in time and that it would take too long to “dry-in” if I worked only on weekends.

I decided to build my Reclaimed Space to fit a “shipping envelope.” Not so tall that it would hit bridges, but wide enough to be usable. I also incorporated sustainable practices I learned at UT like cross wind ventilation, single pitch roof optimized for rain water catchment, solar compatibility (orienting the space long way east/west preventing too much sun), over insulation, and the use of piers. The piers eliminate the need for a lot of concrete and are able to relocate easily if needed.

Since I painted my way through college, I knew where most damage would occur from the sun and rain. To compensate for this, I placed galvanized tin on the bottom 1/3 of the north and south walls, and almost all of the east and west walls. The structure was built with eaves for the same reasons.

Next came style, for years I had collected 100 yrs old material with great appreciation for it’s structural strength, historic value, rich colors and textures. I was happy to do my part to save landfill space.

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