SHACINSPIRED BY HENRY DAVID THOREAU’S HUT AT WALDEN POND. TRANSLATED AS A TOOL FOR OUR TIME TUNED TO PLANET EARTH. A MINIMUM PROTOTYPE THAT ADJUSTS TO ITS ENVIRONMENT IN THE SENSE THAT A TREE DOES, IE AUTONOMOUS ENERGY, INFO, WATER+FOOD, INTEGRATED STRUCTURE, ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS WITH LOUVRE SKINS THAT RESPOND VIA SENSORS TO TEMPERATURE, WIND, MOISTURE AND LIGHT. ‘..THIS FRAME SO SLIGHTLY CLAD, WAS A SORT OF CRYSTALLISATION AROUND ME..’ THOREAU.
The Marlborough Snug is an innovative design providing a high quality work space, bedroom or sauna using the unique properties of pine heartwood.
The Snug is a Marlborough Regional Development Trust affordable housing project.
It uses European research plus locally grown materials and local businesses.
Everyone who has seen it just loves it.
The first Snug is now in Christchurch at 166 Ferry Road where it is being used a tempory office.
Keep watching this site to find out how you can see it.
The L41 home, designed by Architect Michael Katz and Artist Janet Corne is a 220 sq. ft. ultra-compact, sustainable, high-design, high quality, energy-efficient house. The L41 home makes it possible for the millions of people who otherwise could not afford to buy a house, to become homeowners.
Simply making a house small, however, is not good enough, it must be highly livable and delightful and the L41 is both.
In the same way that the Model-T made it possible for the masses to own a car, so too, the key to providing a house for everyone is to minimize its size and to utilize mass-production. The L41 has been specifically designed to be a mass-produced, “State-of-the-Art” house and could become part of the important group of affordable products such as the $2,500 Tata car
Sub-compact, highly affordable houses can satisfy the needs of many diverse groups:
• First-time buyers • Students • Seniors • Hotels • Pied ‘d terres
• Special-needs • Homeless • Military • Emergency housing
The L41 home is designed for a generation that understands the principles of “small is beautiful”, preservation of resources, improving the lives of others and enhancing our f uture by means of sustainable actions. With every inch of space utilized and many built-in storage solutions provided, L41 fulfills the maxim, “everything in its place and a place for everything”.
L41 is constructed of Cross-laminated Timber, (CLT) a relatively new wood product in North America. The true benefit of CLT is that it is solid wood and can be used as a substitute for concrete in mid-rise buildings. (the British have built 9 stories) When one considers that concrete is responsible for 8% of the world’s carbon emissions, the implications become clear.
L41 homes can be built in many configurations, from a single unit to high-rise buildings and because of the high achievable densities, can play a significant role in providing affordable housing in inner-city locations. In addition to the 220 sq. ft. Studio, there also is a 290 sq. ft. 1-Bed and a 360 sq. ft. 2-Bedroom unit.
Read more… L41.
Student building project at MIT
Baltimorean Will Homan, along with Pernilla Hagberth from Sweden and Clementine Blakemore from England, took on the Auburn University Rural Studio challenge: plan, design, and build a $20K house in Hale County, Alabama that could potentially be produced as a viable alternative to trailers in the area and purchased with a 502 Direct Loan. Above you see the project, from beginning sketches to one finished house. After the inaugural project in 2005, this structure marks the program’s ninth iteration. Now for the details…
Read more at Rural Southern Studio: Small Space, Small Budget.
Small Houses, pg 205
Small Houses, pg 169
Small Houses, pg?
It’s a two for one sneaky deal!
