Around the globe there is a tremendous amount of prime real estate simply not being used for any real purpose whatsoever.  Many, if not most, property owners do not realize that if they have a large, flat roof there are some really fun and interesting options for what they can do with this space.  In fact, these options can even enhance their lives by giving them not just more space, but a different space than what they currently enjoy.  The Hut puts a spotlight on this idea quite nicely.

Hut is a rather clever idea developed by architect Scotty Batty and designer Morag Myerscogh.  Myerscough wanted a private space for her kitchen in London and decided that she would build a mini-space right on top of the third floor of her 1890′s home.  The end result was the hut.

The Hut is reached by climbing up a simple staircase and while it is only a few feet away from Myerscough’s existing home it feels literally like she is at a retreat home every time she uses it.  Due to the fact that the Hut has such a different design aesthetic, the Hut has become something of an escape.

Myerscough notes that the Hut gives her different light than in her 1890s home as well as a different feel.  Much of this “different light” comes from the fact that the Hut has a large skylight and doors that can be opened to create a very free and flowing space. The design of the Hut is such that it creates a great deal of quite and even privacy as the addition is not visible from street level.

The Hut is constructed entirely out of timber with an eye toward sustainability.  Solar panels also provide for much of the Hut’s power in keeping with this sustainable and green theme.

Part of the Hut’s considerable charm is that the design showcases how much existing space is currently not being properly utilized all over the world. No doubt it is rather sad that there is so much great rooftop space not being enjoyed in some fashion or another and the Hut, with its fresh design, truly underscores this fact.

The latest issue of the Small Living Journal has just been released.  This issue’s topic is food management and cooking in tiny spaces.

I have also been remiss in mention the past two issues.  If you haven’t already checked them out, I would encourage you to do so:

SLJ: Bureacracy/Regulations and Small Home Living

SLJ: Living with Other People

MetroShip isn’t just a pretty face that photographs well.  This cutting-edge house boat concept is hand-made in the United States and inspired by the open floor plans of New York City loft spaces.  Stating that a great deal of thought and care went into the MetroShip would be an understatement.  From concept and design to a finished product, the MetroShip took seven years.  What emerged from those seven years of development was a well-thought out and well-executed vision of how flexible and stylish a houseship could be.

Materials play a vital role in the concept of the MetroShip.  The hull is made out of either of aluminum, fiberglass or steel hull, with translucent aluminum grid panels.  There is a one piece fiberglass roof system as well.

Much of the MetroShip concept revolves around the fact that the designer wanted to the MetroShip to feel like a “updated Frank Lloyd Wright home but with an open New York Loft condo style.”  The materials selected for the concept thus went hand in hand with this design goal.

Interior design was of paramount importance with a major goal being to avoid the “RV at sea” look that is often found in floating homes.  With this goal in mind, tremendous attention was paid to the design of the kitchen and bathroom.  The look, feel and functionality of the kitchen was key as was the idea that the bathroom needed to be full-sized and not scaled down as found on most boats for example.  Another critical aspect of the interior design was light.  The interior space needed to be flooded in light.  Often houseboats are lacking in windows and thus lacking in light.  The MetroShip concept was one were light needed to flow freely.

The tagline for MetroShip is “The Original Modern Houseship.”  And this tagline certainly fits.  The MetroShip has a look and feel that is often missing from most houseships or floating homes.  Complete with engines, the MetroShip is capable of moving under its own power.  At 48 feet in length and 12 feet wide, the MetroShip has plenty of room to not only stretch out but do so from almost anywhere.

So I am completely enamored by Vodafone’s Extreme Mobile Solar Home design.

I don’t think it’s any secret that I’m fascinated by just about any type of tiny home on wheels.  However, there are several things I love about this particular design.  First, I appreciate the modern design aesthetic.  Many of the tiny mobile homes follow Jay Shafer’s design lead and have very rustic, cabin-feeling interiors.  While those have a great appeal for me, as well, it’s refreshing to encounter a different style of design which creatively employs the use of glass, light wood floors, and loft-style elements.  The Vodafone could easily appear in the next issue of Dwell Magazine without being out of place.

Secondly, the Vodafone design uses its 19’7″ x 8’2″ dimensions extremely well in terms of spatial design.  There is a spacious (by tiny home standards) sleeping loft upstairs, a well-equipped kitchen, and clever use of convertible furniture and storage space (such as the cupboards below the stairway).  And, naturally, the solar panels incorporated in the design are another fantastic element.

The home is built with white polyethylene panels and clear polycarbonate.  The modern interior has a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and two beds upstairs. It was designed by Waskman Design Studio, with CuldeSac, for Vodafone to showcase its fixed phone and wireless internet services.

The home is currently occupied by blogger Marcos Morales and his family as they travel through Spain. You can follow their journey here.

Below is a video of the home being built.

Photo credits: Waskman Design Studio

Some tiny home concepts are just completely fascinating. Often tiny home pioneers are also pioneers in other aspects of the housing revolution. This may be in the world of building materials, the artistic use of space or in the overarching concepts.>The Dome House meets all three of these criteria and in an impressive fashion to say the least.

The Dome House comes to us from Japan and has the support and approval of the Japanese Ministry of Land and Transport. As the creators of the Dome House are quick to point out, Japan has the world’s strictest building codes, so you can be assured that the Dome Home is a structurally sound design.

Not surprisingly with a name like the Dome Home, this housing concept uses a dome shape for its construction. This is not, however, a simple design aesthetic choice. The dome shape has been chosen for its unique building characteristics, which the Dome House team believes melds nicely with their choice of building materials. The dome structure, with the shape’s innate benefits, as well as the material choice of expanded polystyrene, combine together to give the Dome House a variety of interesting characteristics.

The material choice of expanded polystyrene means that the house’s construction is free of formaldehyde. This fact combined with the design’s air circulation plan combine for a home that tackles the “sick home” crisis facing modern housing. Further, expanded polystyrene is an exceptional insulator, and the dome shape itself contributes to the cost savings. Air circulates more freely as it does not become trapped in corners.

The Dome House, because of its expanded polystyrene design, will not rot or rust and is not vulnerable to termites and other pests. Due to its lightweight and dome shape, the Dome House is also very resistant to earthquakes. Of course, the earthquake consideration is of paramount importance for the Japanese building code, and it is no surprise that this factor played such a large role in the overall design. Additionally, this earthquake resistant factor could make the Dome Home yet more attractive in other earthquake hotspots such as California.

Now for the potential downside. Is the Dome House eco-friendly? The designers of the Dome Home have taken measures to make sure there is little waste in the design. Also a small team of a 3 to 4 people home can assemble the entire in a week using prefabricated, lightweight sections. There are only five basic parts in the construction of a Dome House. The prefabricated aspect of its design and quick build time definitely help make the design more eco-friendly. This is the good side.

As for the expanded polystyrene foam, it does not biodegrade and it is not easily recycled due to its low weight and low recycle value. There is also the issue that conventional polystyrene foams can have harmful substances such as benzene contained within them. The website doesn’t clearly address these particular issues specifically, but does point to the fact that those who choose a Dome Home will not have to worry about “sick home syndrome. This statement could very well mean that some sort of precautions have been put in place to protect dwellers from any health concerns.

The Dome Home concept has a great deal in its favor. The concept looks great, is easy to build, and the design concept would save energy in a variety of ways. Slowly, more environmentally friendly alternatives to polystyrene are becoming available, which could eventually make this concept a real winner. For now, the Dome Home is cheap to manufacture, is durable and has great insulation properties.

One would be hard pressed to find a more innovative use of shipping containers than the Greentainer Project.  There are quite literally millions of shipping containers already built, and many of them are simply sitting on load docks all over ports around the world.  What could be more eco-friendly than taking these structures, already built, and turning them into homes and offices?  The Greentainer Project taps into this rather sensible notion in a big way, taking the standard 40-foot shipping container and really running with it.

The Greentainer takes the idea of large windows and ample light exposure to a new level, as the floor to ceiling windows wrap around the entire shipping container structure. Essentially, the vast majority of the walls have been replaced with glass, leaving the original shipping container floor, ceiling and support structures.

One of the first aspects of the Greentainer design that most people will notice is that it is quite beautiful. No doubt the design concept is simple, but the execution of that concept is well done and polished. Lit up at night the Greentainer looks more at home in a museum than it does in suburbia or an business district.

The eye towards functionality is high which also yields a great degree of flexibility in how the Greentainer itself can be used.

The entire Greentainer concept is one that is designed to be eco-friendly.  Solar panels are built into the top of the design to provide for the units energy needs, and the large floor to ceiling windows make the Greentainer an excellent choice for passive heating in colder climates.

The Greentainer is a truly excellent example of how new concepts in housing can be elegant, eco-conscious and very economical.  The notion that all homes must be built in exactly the same way is an idea that will likely not hold sway in the 21st century.

Some sustainable and green building concepts have been around for quite some time now.  Take, for example, Cob Homes.  Cob is generally referred to as any home that uses a mixture of clay, sand and straw.  It can be seen as being similar to adobe, yet cob uses a significantly higher percentage of straw.  Cob construction has been around for at least 800 years and has been practiced all over the world.  These homes can be cheap, as they are of course made of very inexpensive materials. However, one drawback is that they are very labor intensive.

While cob may have the drawback of being rather labor intensive, it does have a variety of benefits.  One major benefit that should catch the eye of anyone who is interested in having a green home is that cob uses all natural materials.  Cob construction takes advantage of some of nature’s most readily available materials-clay, straw and sand.  All three of these materials are cheap, abundant and are completely natural.  Thus, cob is completely sustainable.  Of course, this means that indoor air quality is improved, as one does not have to worry about potential VOCs from paint and building materials.

Now before you run out in your work clothes and declare, “today is the day I build my cob castle!” there are a few things you need to consider.  Cob homes are very labor intensive, but that fact aside, there are two problems that must be addressed.  One problem is that of codes.  Building codes where cob homes are concerned can be a sticky issue, especially depending on where you live.  Another issue that might impact your decision is getting that all-important bank loan.  Banks are usually not too eager to give a loan for someone to build a house that is literally made out of clay, straw and sand!  Yet, on the flip side of this issue, cob homes are, well, “dirt cheap” to build.

If you are interested in building a cob home for yourself then there are a few good websites you should visit.  One is cobworkshops.org.  This site will tell you were you can go and take informative workshops on cob in different locations.  For a good overview of what cob is all about check out Oregon based www.cobhollow.com. While there may be some challenges associated with building a cob home, no doubt, the price is right on this very eco-friendly building technique.

You have to give Stefan Eberstadt from Germany some real credit.  His concept for the Rucksack House is nothing short of genius.  What this clever design does can best be described as attaching a add-on to an existing structure.  Now while that might not sound like anything to new, it really is.

This tiny space isn’t designed to be a stand-alone home, but more of an add-on to an existing structure that can be placed several floors up on the side of an apartment building.  The Rucksack House is suspended from the roof with steel cables, and the concept was designed to be sort of walk-in sculpture.  Or as Eberstadt describes it, “a hovering illuminated space that looks like a cross between temporary scaffolding and minimal sculpture.”

Eberstadt wants the Rucksack House to be a transportable dwelling component that can be placed on the outside of any existing large structure.  Much of what one has to appreciate about the Rucksack House is that it does wonders to show (and in a visually striking fashion) how sharp minds can put the tiny space concept to good use to make the architectural landscape of tomorrow far more interesting.

The interior of the Rucksack House is a winning concept as well.  Sections of the walls literally fold down to reveal a variety of useful sections, such as a bed area, a desk and even shelving.  The look inside is really quite like something out of a modern art museum with numerous windows placed in unexpected locations and of varying geometry.

There can be little doubt that anyone who sees the Rucksack House hanging from the side of a large building in any downtown area across the world is likely to be left a little speechless.  The Rucksack House has a variety of possibilities and could really serve those living in places like New York and Tokyo very well if the idea ever catches on.  Why just ask anyone living in a crowded New York City apartment if they would like a little more space.  The odds are they would be ecstatic at the idea of a Rucksack House.

MagCloud Magazine recently released a special e-issue of BoMoSo tiny home plans.  The issue includes 14 buildings with 21 floor plans including several that vary significantly in terms of architectural styles from many of the other tiny home plans that are available. The Tuscan designs are particularly unique to anything I’ve seen so far in the Small Home Movement.

There is also a very interesting model of an alternating tread circular staircase included.

The issue can be purchased on the MagCloud website for $15.

You may also wish to check out BoMoSo’s website.  Looks like they have a couple of interesting tiny home designs on wheels.

There is a lot more to building an eco-friendly and tiny home than might initially meet the eye.  It would be easy to say that a tiny home is, well not surprisingly, small.  But tiny homes these days mean much more than just small.

Most buildings and architects that are involved in the tiny home movement are also making sure that their homes have a variety of traits.  While not completely universal, these core set of “home values” pop up a great deal in the tiny home universe.

One core concept in the tiny home movement is that the space is used well.  Architects realize that just tossing up four walls will really not cut it when the space is limited.  Virtually all the architects involved in the movement realize that a tiny home is likely going to be much smaller than what people are generally accustomed to living in.  As a result, architects and builders usually work to make their tiny homes visually interesting or at the least, very user friendly.

Another tiny home element that is popping up in a great many of today’s designs is an eye toward energy efficiency.  The notion that going tiny is only an aspect of the battle again high home heating and cooling cost.  To this end, many architects and manufacturers are incorporating all sorts of energy saving strategies, such as energy efficient lighting, energy efficient appliances, smart use of passive lighting and high-efficiency building materials.

As many architects and builders are concerned about the energy issue, it is not surprising that many are taking the next step beyond energy efficiency and are moving toward solar power.  Many tiny home designs today are seeing solar panels incorporated right into the design.  The thinking is that a highly efficient tiny home, when combined with solar power, equals a home that is using just a small fraction of the energy of today’s average American dwelling.

When all of these different factors are combined they have a very large impact.  By using new techniques and approaches to home building in general, the new generation of tiny home architects and builders are making tiny homes that are very energy efficient.  This movement is great for the homeowner in terms of lower overall living costs and has obvious benefits for the environment as well.