Allure of tiny, compact houses II

Cabin Modeled After Fire Tower

This one isn't the smallest, lightest or mobile; instead this one is based on a fire tower base; like a tower or fortress. The inspiration of fire comes from the illuminated second floor which gives this particular house a "fire effect". Despite clad in stone on the bottom, this house is more permanent than any other mobile home (a more substantial foundation would be required), this house still provides a decent amount of sustainability through self sufficient energy through the solar panels. These solar panels provide all of the energy required for general usage. This interior shot is wonderful: the contrast provided by the brown wood invokes Asian motifs but still remains consistently light colored theme. Lighter colors conveys space much better than dark colors can, so the use of lighter colors is a staple of tiny houses.

XS House by Tumbleweed

This is one of the smallest mobile tiny houses available on the market; it is designed to be towed with a truck or a heavy SUV. Featuring a minuscule 65 feet which makes it nearly half the size of my room. This house is designed for a single residence only, as many of its accommodations had to be downsized; toilets and sinks are not comparable to standard sized versions. The bed is lofted onto the top floor, allowing easy access to the resting area. Much like most of tiny houses, the interior design of these houses incorporate very light colors to give an illusion of size and space. However, in this case and with the next one, the addition of the loft bed gives an illusion of size due to the empty gap between the edge of the bed and the opposite of the house. This way it can allow for the other appliances to mesh together on the bottom floor. Overall, this is a very well designed floor plan with all the necessary accommodations for a comfortable living.

 Nine square feet house

This house concept is what tiny houses taken to an extreme; it features a bed, kitchen and bathroom and even porch all rolled into one. While I like the small coziness of this kind of house, I felt that the form factor and lack of open space makes these particular designs. Like the XS House before it, most of these designs incorporate the lofting of the bed on the higher level to preserve the overall size of the portable house. This kind of housing is not a form of permanent housing at all; instead I believe it is merely a glorified tent where a person can just bring their tiny house to a forest so that they can be protected from more elements than a traditional tent would accomplish. Of course, the ability to cook and use bathroom are great advantages. However, while I like this concept of taking tiny houses to its most logical extreme, a car can only pull one of these things and it is a one person only house, therefore making it highly inefficient as a form of portable housing. These designs are just conceptual designs that serves to illustrate the ability of these architects to maximize space, nothing more.