Sommerhaus PIU is a modern prefab vacation home by industrial designer Patrick Frey and architect Björn Götte. Inspired by the Scandinavian summerhouse culture, they created a casual, timeless design that would fit into… Continue reading
What to do with an aging parent or grandparent who can no longer live independently? That question will be asked more frequently as the population ages. For some families, having granny move into… Continue reading
GreenPod Development is a prefab home builder in Port Townsend, Washington. As the name suggests, GreenPod places an emphasis on sustainable and healthy homes. Their houses are built from structural insulated panels, ensuring… Continue reading
The humid forest of Brazil’s Costa Verde is the setting for this unusual small house. Nicknamed “Arca” (“Ark”) by the locals for its resemblance to an overturned vessel, the arched house was built… Continue reading
DublDom is a line of wood-framed prefabricated dwellings produced near Moscow. Since its introduction several years ago, the DublDom system has been very successful within Russia. Its modular design and quick on-site installation… Continue reading
Solar Decathlon 2015 just wrapped up in Orange County, California. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Solar Decathlon challenges collegiate teams to design and build a small house powered entirely by… Continue reading
The Wee House Company is a recent Scottish startup offering energy-efficient small houses designed to appeal to first-time homebuyers, downsizing empty-nesters and anyone wanting to add a rental cottage or “granny flat” to… Continue reading
Kanga Room Systems designs and builds prefab structures including backyard studios, cabins and small houses. The cottage shown here was built for a client who wanted a simple dwelling for her property in… Continue reading
Refugio (“Refuge”) is a tiny prefab dwelling produced by FabriHome in Chile. It is typically used as a vacation cabin but it could be a permanent residence for a single person or a… Continue reading
Noble Home sells efficient and modern kit homes with a floor plan custom designed for each buyer. The Noble Home building system is available in widths of either 16′ or 20′, and any… Continue reading
Our first tiny house from Russia, DublDom (“double house”) is a modular dwelling designed by BIO Architects and fabricated not far from Moscow. There are two DublDom models, the 26 m2 (280 ft2) version shown… Continue reading
This timber frame cabin with modern lines sits overlooking Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho. It is a TimberCab 550, the smallest in the line of the prefabricated homes by FabCab. FabCab produces a… Continue reading
A documentary on bees inspired builder Barry Jackson to create the Hivehaus, a modular housing system based on a standard-sized unit called a cell. Each hexagonal cell is a single room with 9.3 m2… Continue reading
Architect Sigurd Larsen designed this small family house to be economical to build. The floor plan is a simple rectangle and the gable roof has no dormers, hips or valleys to add complexity… Continue reading
Australian firm Nova Deko Modular builds modular houses in a wide range of sizes, marketing the smaller ones as “granny flats“. Of those, one of the larger ones is the Milan, built to… 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
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
“ContainerLove” is a new modern home in a rural area of western Germany, standing out among more traditional gabled farm houses and barns. It was designed by Cologne-based studio LHVH Architekten.
The Island House is situated on a narrow island in Loosdrecht Lake in the Netherlands. The island, at 100 m long and 5 m (16′) wide, is barely wider than the house. The… Continue reading
A concert violinist wanted a beautiful and well-built retreat for herself and her young child. The cabin would be off-grid, sitting at the edge of a cornfield overlooking a treed ravine. However her… Continue reading
A team from Vermont’s Middlebury College designed and built this small house for Solar Decathlon 2013. InSite, as it is called, is intended to meet the needs of young Vermont families. The team… Continue reading
Team Alberta Solar Decathlon took a unique approach to the Solar Decathlon 2013 competition. Their entry, called Borealis, is designed to be shared by unrelated housemates. The small house features two separate bedroom… Continue reading
This is the home of a couple and their young daughter. When the family decided to settle down in a countryside village in Slovenia, they asked architect Matej Gašperič to design a sustainable… Continue reading
Start.Home is the Solar Decathlon 2013 entry by team Stanford Solar Decathlon. It is one of the larger entries, with up to two bedrooms in a 988 ft2 (91.8 m2) floor plan. For… Continue reading
