Americans generally prefer large when it comes to their housing options. Our CityWalk @Akard project here in Downtown Dallas challenges some of those community assumptions and expectations with our very efficient studio apartments.
But here is a real stretch toward downsizing life in the pursuit of sustainability and economy, while at the same time maintaining a sense of excellence and beauty.
Would you live in such a house--96 square feet?
Jay Shafer's little house is, of course, a "mobile home," although it's far from aerodynamic, and it's likely mighty heavy (since its framework and skin are wooden). i'd hate to have to tow it far, especially in a Texas crosswind. Apparently its indoor plumbing is scant indeed.
ReplyDeleteShafer's project reminds me of the 19-foot Trotwood "travel trailer" that my father and i used as a residence in Albuquerque, Arlington, and Abilene 50-56 years ago. i suppose we were just "trailer trash" then, and not sophisticated minimalists seeking "sustainable" living. If we think of "sustainable" as "makin' do with what you got," then we might think of ourselves as pioneers of sustainable living, but we had a lot of company then, and i daresay we'd have plenty now. As my father used to say, "poor people got poor ways," and he was right about that.
God's Peace to you.
d
Close on 60 years ago, before we bought the trailer in Albuquerque, my father had bought a piece of land on a dirt road in Marshall County, Kentucky, and traded some work to a man who excavated a basement for the house my father wanted to build. He even had an architect execute a set of plans.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, he bought a good-runnin' 1934 Chevrolet 1-1/2-ton truck with a nice stake bed. We used the truck for a while, and then cut it up and sold it for scrap iron, since the Korean War was on, and it would bring more money that way. i have often wished that we had saved that truck, but what we saved was the 9x6 stake bed. We wrapped it in tarpaper, put a roof on it, and installed a bed and a butane stove. i drew water with a bucket from the neighbor's well, down the hill, and we had another "little house behind the house" for waste disposal. We lived on that land for six months or so, until necessity demanded that we move on West.
That dwelling would never meet anybody's code, but it was surely "sustainable" and "economical." We lived in it, and it met our needs. If i had to do it again, then i'd have to do it, but i wouldn't volunteer. "Poor people got poor ways."
God's Peace to you.
d
I like it very much.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. Reminds me of a (very) samll effiency apartment. Won't work for families, but I guess a 500 sq ft model would. (That might be a little too much togetherness.) Aren't there very small houses built in NO after Katrina? How do they compare?
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