It’s no secret that housing costs eat up a significant chunk of most people’s budgets. Many people are drawn to the small house movement in the hopes that it will enable their dreams… Continue reading
Two brothers who love to surf purchased a hillside property overlooking the Pacific at Matanzas, one of many places to catch the waves along Chile’s central coastline. They asked WMR Arquitectos to design… Continue reading
Architects Luis Velasco Roldan and Ángel Hevia Antuña have built a prototype house designed for Ecuador’s climate and social conditions. The small house is made from locally-sourced, natural materials and uses passive solar… Continue reading
Ten years ago Friday, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Mississippi, its record-breaking 28′ (8.5 m) storm surge virtually obliterating the small coastal town of Waveland. Pye Parson and her family had evacuated in… Continue reading
A “shotgun house” is a type of small house in which the rooms are lined up in a single row from front to back. A typical shotgun floor plan had the living room… Continue reading
Three recent New Zealand architecture graduates decided to get hands-on building experience and to jump-start their careers by designing and building a small house. It certainly helped their careers when the house, dubbed… Continue reading
The Black Shed sits low and hunkered against the wind on Scotland’s Isle of Skye. The small cottage replaced a dilapidated storage shed on a working croft (small farm). Rural Design Architects designed… Continue reading
Located a couple hours drive into the mountains north of Santiago, Chile, “Charred Cabin” is an appealingly simple vacation retreat. Working with a client budget of just $15,000, studio DRAA had to keep… Continue reading
“The Nest” is an oasis of nature in a dense urban area. The client, an architecture journalist, wanted a “green” house that could be built on his modest budget. Architects a21studio designed a… Continue reading
The owner of this village house in Slovakia had a dream that many of us share: “I want to live in a small house on a small plot at a reasonable price.” Of… Continue reading
This small family house in Spain is composed of six wooden boxes joined together. Its design was the result of two significant challenges. As is often the case, the budget was very tight,… Continue reading
This unassuming house in Shiga, Japan is home to a young family. Architects ALTS Design Office designed the 71.3 m2 (768 ft2) floor plan around the combined living and dining room at the back of… Continue reading
A young family asked Rusafova Markulis Architects to design an energy-efficient home within their modest budget. Site constraints in the form of setbacks, an easement and two mature trees severely limited the buildable… Continue reading
Treehouse Riga is a small modular dwelling with two bedrooms in a compact 44 m2 (474 ft2) floor plan. The tiny house was designed by architects Appleton & Domingos for modular home builder Jular. Treehouse… Continue reading
Influential architect and designer Charlotte Perriand conceived La Maison au Bord de l’Eau in 1934 for an architectural competition to design a low-cost vacation home for the masses. Though she took second prize,… Continue reading
This “bach” is perched on a sand dune on New Zealand’s Kapiti Coast. A bach is a modest vacation home in New Zealand, originally referring to a basic shack built from inexpensive or… Continue reading
Sarah House Utah is a small non-profit organization intent on creating affordable and sustainable housing for people on low incomes. Jeffrey White was inspired to found Sarah House Utah after witnessing an artist… Continue reading
A family of seven in rural South Korea now lives in a brand new shipping container house thanks to the design efforts of JYA‑RCHITECTS and financial sponsorship from the Korea Child Fund. The… Continue reading
A young family seeking a peaceful rural getaway selected a property in the northern Czech countryside. Once part of a farm, the property held the remains of a large barn which had decayed… Continue reading
The Pivot Pad is a small modern dwelling in the Texas Hill Country. The lot has neighbors on both sides but to the back is a creek and a nature conservation area. The… Continue reading
“The Box” is a tiny house in the woods hand-built by architect Ralph Erskine. He would later go on to design influential buildings in Sweden, England and Canada. In 1941 though, he was… Continue reading
Danchi Hutch is a basic box of a house, humble and inexpensive but with a very functional layout. It has a carriage house design, with a small upper floor living area over a… Continue reading
Hamra is a vacation home on the island of Gotland in Sweden. The owners had initially wanted to convert a barn into a summer house. When no suitable barn could be found, architects… Continue reading
A small dwelling sits in the middle of an apple orchard in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. A young musician seeking privacy and space to work opted to have his own small house built… Continue reading
