Can the tiny house fetish evolve to address real sustainability and affordable housing challenges? Ben Brown says yes.
"I’ve never been much of a fan of the Tiny House movement, which seemed to me to be a solution in search of a problem. Squeezing marginally comfortable living space into something you can haul around with a truck didn’t seem to be much of a design challenge. After all, there’s a whole industry that’s been addressing that demand for generations. You know, RVs."
Brown goes on to discuss his three months living in what many might call a Tiny House. He had no problem functioning happily in its 350-square-feet because "the house was a legal structure on a fixed foundation in a mixed-use, infill neighborhood in easy reach of everything I needed." It's about the neighborhood structure.
Now there are a number of different organizations and ideologies having the same conversation, calling it all different things: weeHouse, pocket neighborhoods, and cottage courts. Brown suggests we broaden the discussion so these parallel paths can converge to a set of best practices.
FULL STORY: Thinking a Little Bigger About the Tiny House Thing
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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
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North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA)
Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research