In a equally thought out response, Lloyd Alter of Treehugger (and a player in the prefab industry) calls the question of whether houses built on-site or prefabs are better at best a tie citing James Kunstler’s assertion that the American suburban experiment is dead and that the landscape is going to keep changing.

If you are interested in prefab and want to know some of the underlying issues you can read these very well informed articles here:

Chad’s original article on Jetson Green:
Prefab is Not The Answer to Affordable, Modern & Green Homes
(don’t miss the comments…)

Lloyd’s response on Treehugger:
Another Opinion: Prefab is Not the Answer to Affordable, Modern and Green Homes
(again… don’t miss the comments.)

Lloyd’s second response on Treehugger:
Refab Now!

Allyson Wendt’s response on BuildingGreen.com:
Can Prefab be Green and Affordable?

Additions include a handmade wood burning stove with water heater and an interior furniture package made in Arvesund’s own joinery in Jämtland. The interior package consists of a bed, chair, table, wardrobe and shelves.

“…this cabin is rather a way of channelling the city dweller’s lack of seclusion and proximity to nature. I wanted to show people’s longing to escape from the intensity of urban life. The Hermit’s Cabin raises the issue of the individual versus society, and of mankind’s fundamental need for solitude. It’s about our origins and our relation to nature from the perspective of the urban society. Therefore the cabin is filled with most of the things a person need rather than the religious notion of the aesthetic or the most basic. Here you can light a fire, eat, sleep, read, doze or quite simply do nothing.” Mats Theselius, designer.

Our only question is… where is the bathroom?

The Hermit´s Cabin Original:
Area: 86 sq feet
Length: 9.6′
Width: 8.7′
Height front: 8.2′
Height back: 10′
Weight approximately: 3300 lb

photo credits: Arvesund
via: Busyboo

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE FREEWAY Jay Shafer took his 90-square-foot house on tour this summer, rolling along a Los Angeles highway. image credit: Stephanie Diani for The New York Times

Steven’s article also features (you guessed it) Jay Shafer and the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company and Greg Johnson, a founder of the Small House Society. Jay and Greg took to the road and pulled Jay’s small house from Victoria, British Columbia to San Diego this summer to promote small living. Brad Kittel’s Tiny Texas Houses were also mentioned in addition to Michael Janzen’s Tiny Free House project. Shay Solomon summed it up: “It’s a very exciting moment because it feels like a chapter of American history might be ending, the chapter called ‘Bigger is Better.’ I’m not the Gallup poll, but I hear the same story over and over: We got rid of that big house, and now I have time to see my husband. Before, we used to work all week and then we’d spend the weekend on the house.”

Shay Salomon is a green builder in Tucson, AZ, and the co-author of “Little House on a Small Planet” (Lyons Press, 2006.)

The NYT also published an excellent audio slide show by Bethany Lyttle called Tiny Houses: Less Is More. Don’t miss it.

In conjunction with The Next Little Thing?, the Times published an article by Michael Cannell - Instead of Trading Up, Adding a High-Style Shed featuring some great prefabs including the Kithaus K4, the Modern Shed, the Modern Cabana and of course Michael Sylvester, publisher of fabprefab.com.

Kudos to the New York Times for giving some small house and prefab love.

Jay built his first small house (for himself) in the early ’90s and has been living small ever since. He founded the company in the mid ’90’s because people were expressing real interest in his small house. It seems that other people wanted to live simpler, cheaper and smaller - the Tumbleweed way too.

Jay appeared on Oprah last year and small houses officially hit the big time. You can view the Oprah Tiny Homes, Big Ideas slideshow and video on Oprah.com.

Jay has also made appearances in the San Francisco Chronicle, on CBS (w/ 2 great videos to watch), on NPR, and on countless blog posts and beyond. Keep your eye out for Jay - according to the San Francisco Chronicle he is dreaming up a small house community - shared land, connected by walking paths, on a small piece of land. A sexy, small house development instead of a trailer park? Sounds good to us.

Thanks Jay for being such an inspiration to small house lovers everywhere!

Here are some great video clips and slideshows that feature Jay and Tumbleweed Tiny Houses:

The Hour’s Hilary Doyle finds out if Jay has a good idea:

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company slideshow:

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company Lusby model slideshow:

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company - building the WeeBee:

Learn more about Tumbleweed Tiny Houses and Tumbleweed Tiny House Plans. Jay hosts workshops all over the country if you are interested in learning more.

Stats:
750 square feet
$16,000 US in 1997

With a narrow, steep strip of land to build on, this small house design had to incorporate three levels or one end would have been 20 feet off the ground.  According to Pedro, this was a quick project due to being born under a lucky star - it seems that things usually don’t go as smoothly for other builders in his neck of the woods.  Under budget and on schedule including a month for the wood to air dry (at that time, and maybe still, all wood in Costa Rica was delivered green; no kiln drying because the demand was so great.)  Pedro chose wood over cement blocks not only because it was cheaper but more attractive in his opinion (ours too!)  

The house sits on pilings for ease of construction.  Pedro was also told that it would be better protection during an earthquake - usually one little quake a month and 2 big ones per year.  He chose tin for roofing material (again earthquake protection) but if you look closely it looks like tile - he’s an artist.  No need for insulation kept the costs down (it is always in the high 70’s.) Same goes for a heating system - no need.  Hot water comes from an on demand system and he cooks with gas in case the electricity goes out (which it does from time to time.)

All told it took 3 months from stakes in the ground to move in.  “I must say I was very lucky. Most North Americans I have met here who have built have nothing but horror stories that go beyond ‘over budget’ and ‘it took forever to get done’.”  Pedro has his disaster stories but they don’t really compare to those of his “neighbors” - “neighbor in these here parts does not mean close by.”  

“The closest I came to a disaster was after my kitchen cabinets had been installed and were ready for painting. A painter had been brought in; I imagine because he owned the spray gun and compressor. I have to admit that he did a great job. Every layer of paint was the right thickness, no runs or drips. The only problem was he knew nothing about masking or laying newspapers on the floor. When he was done there was white paint all over the tile, floor, counter, and the window slats. I had to hire another guy (he owned a razor blade) to clean it up. At least the two days he spent cleaning it up didn’t interfere with the rest of the finish work. Damned if it didn’t add another 45 dollars to the cost of the house.  But my stories are mild compared to the stories of others.”

Word to the wise: Make sure you are on site for much of the construction and that you are very clear with your GC or foreman - it could make or break your small house dream.  

If you have any comments or questions for Pedro, post them in the comments - he’ll respond!

Pedro’s last word? “Viva la casita! (Long live the Little House!)”

PS Check out Pedro’s artwork - he is 3 inches taller than Picasso.

We’ll be polishing them up with images asap so check back!

Tumbleweed WeeBee at Sunset

Small House Plans

Small House Builders and Kits

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

You’ll notice that some of the images don’t belong. Just mouse over the top of the slideshow and advance…

We’ll be posting more images for your small house viewing pleasure soon. Check back!

Introducing the S14x Community series.

At just over 1,000 square feet, the S14x series offers excellent thermal insulation properties of K-KONTROL polystyrene panels provide a low cost of heating the house. The K-KONTROL panels are “green” to some degree. Large windows allow significant passive solar heat gain during the winter and the sliding panels keep things cool in the summer.

You can see from the S14x plans on their site that there are 3 designs in the the series: the S140, the S141 and the S142.

Don’t miss the virtual tour of the S141.

images courtesy of ARCHTEAM

National Geo featured Yasuhiro Yamashita’s Penguin House not long ago. We’ve been looking to feature more small house video on Small House Style so here goes:

Here are the specs and some pictures.

More on Yasuhiro Yamashita here. Check out more of Yamashita’s designs. Here are some more pictures at japan-architects.com.

via Future House Now