Рубрика: THE SMALL HOUSE BOOK

Aesthetics

Today’s market suggests that, for many of us, the perceived prestige of enor­mity takes precedence over design and even structural integrity when choos — sing a home. It seems that even a shoddy status symbol, with its expansive vinyl walls and snap-on plastic window grills, can somehow connote distinc­tion. The finer qualities of design have […]

Economics

"Economical” means doing only what is necessary to getting a job done. Anything more would be wasteful and contrary to the inherent simplicity of good design. An economical home affords what is essential to the comfort of its occupants without the added burden of unused space. Excess and economy are mutually exclusive. We can have […]

A Good Home

A small house is not merely as good as its larger correlate; it is better. A home that is designed to meet its occupants’ domestic needs for contented living without exceeding those needs will invariably surpass the quality of a bigger one in terms of sustainability, economics and aesthetics. Sustainability Under no circumstances does a […]

Camping Out

I had managed to side-step building codes by constructing not a building, but a "travel trailer.” With that stumbling block out of the way, I still faced a zoning problem. I want­ed to live in town, and, like most towns, Iowa City does not allow trailer camping just anywhere. You cannot just buy an old […]

Utilities

Like the rest of the house, utilities and appliances were designed with sim­plicity and sustainability in mind. They met my modest needs but would be considered primitive by conventional American standards. These rudimen­tary utilities certainly would not appeal to everyone interested in living in a small home, and it should be made clear that living […]

Tumbleweed

It was not until after I thought I had al­ready finished designing my little dream home that I became familiar with the term “minimum-size standards.” Up to this point, I had somehow managed to re­main blissfully unaware of these codes; but, as the time for construction neared, my denial gave way to a grim reality. […]