#small house

I’ve written about housing problems, solutions, and the need to address the sprawling issue that is affecting North America under many ways. We know there’s a crisis affecting millions of people which are pushing for a way of life which is not fully compatible with the environment. 

Tiny homes have been on the feed of many social platforms for the past ten  years displaying how cool they are, how cheap they can be made for people to purchase with their minimal requirements. 

After a lengthy look through the years of this trend in small homes, we can say that without any effort it’s financially logical to dive into an investment of such dimension: on the wheel, cozy, made of natural elements, cheap, and so on. 

I find myself arguing against this type of living for the simple reason that it represents the most essential condensation of individualism. They are no different than renting a single room in a house, except your isolation increases because you have the ability to pull it wherever you like it if you opted for the wheel option.

Some have different shapes, some look like the Sandcrawler from Star Wars.

Tiny homes are here to represent an extreme side of housing solution, yet they claim to resolve the many issues of urban sprawling. Their volume of less than 500 sg/ft -on wheel sometimes- is now a trend among architecture and design platforms, but they represent a phenomena of hyped iconoclastic reality juxtaposing against any other viable solution.

Why do we drift from gargantuan McMansion volumes to micro living spaces?- One of the reason is the hype of existentialism in reducing everything to the bone which has been affecting modern society today. It comes as an almost natural response to the exaggeration. The other bit is the will of people to remove themselves from the consumerism trap of their previous generation: millennials don’t want to repeat their parents mistakes and don’t want to end up living in the suburbs.

Some of these homes have great interiors and for a moment you forget they are the size of a shoe box. So fare this is not the solution to a housing crisis which tends to sprawl and consume so much capital and resources. Tiny homes are a trend and like all trends they tend to stay for a while and then fly away until the next one comes.

It’s a confining space that dehumanizes the persona and removes any sense of hospitality. Reducing the living space to a fancy VR or trailer might sound cool, but it’s far from being a home, it removes the very definition of human space becoming a display of self indulgence under the pretense of environmental caring.

Perhaps the real issue here is the lack of compromise between the 5000sq/ft mansion and the 500 sq/ft tiny home. There’s a lot that can be done to provide affordable homes and it should begin with the improvement of already-existing spaces, abandoned malls that can be turned into townhouses and have enough green space for people to enjoy. Cities have plenty of old sites that can be renewed, it’s just a matter of gearing up the right mentality.

TINY HOUSE ON SLAB

A cute house with loads of space and large kitchen.

http://freehomeideas.com/2019/01/02/tiny-house-cabin-in-the-wood/tiny-house-cabin-in-the-wood_44/#main

scary cat alert