A look back at our top 5 Tiny House videos of 2019! From unique tiny houses on wheels to a skoolie homestead, we share viewer favorites from the past year.
Category Archives: Homes
Art & Innovation: “Gweilo” Scupltured Lighting By Partisans Design, Toronto
Gweilo is a new collection of custom lights by PARTISANS. Inspired by the idea that light itself could be harnessed and manipulated to create a physical sculpture, PARTISANS developed a design that alters light at its source. Gweilo reimagines illumination to architectural effect.
As spectral sculptures that fold and bend like light rays themselves, the pieces function as accents, dividers, or centerpieces, gracefully delineating space to create an
ethereal atmosphere.
Each Gweilo light is handmade using thermoforming, a technique that allows etched optical grade acrylic sheets to be custom-shaped while they are still in their hot plastic
state. The sheets are heated to just under 400°C, at which point they become molten and pliable. They are immediately removed from the heat source and sculpted to produce a
variety of distinct folds and curves. When the metal extrusion containing an embedded LED strip is affxed to the cooled sheet’s edge, light is diffused across the etchings, amplifying the luminescent output. The result is an infnite set of silhouettes and sizes that emulate the vital movement of light.
Future Of Homebuilding: World’s First 3D-Printed Community Being Built
The Vulcan 2 3D printer can print a house in just 24 hours of print time. This technology is currently being put to the test in rural Mexico, where it’s being used to build the world’s first 3D-printed community, designed for residents living on less than $3 a day.
Homebuilding: World’s Biggest “3D Printed” Building Completed
Robotic construction company Apis Cor has used its technology to build the world’s largest 3D-printed building, a two-storey administrative office in Dubai.
Measuring 9.5 metres high with a floor area of 640 square metres, Apis Cor built the record-breaking structure for the Dubai Municipality. Apis Cor developed a gypsum-based material to run through the printer and sourced a local producer. The printing took place out in the open, to prove that the technology could handle a harsh environment without humidity and temperature control.
New Books: “Small But Smart – Design Solutions For Mini Homes”
This volume presents a large variety of sophisticated solutions for mini houses in terms of architectural style, construction method and interior design. Whether portable or prefabricated, newly built or reused, rural or urban, they all meet the highest technological and sustainable standards to literally reduce their owners’ ecological footprint.
By living in a large ceramic tub, Ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes was one of the first people to promote a simple lifestyle as a protest against a corrupt society – one could call him an unwitting pioneer of the current tiny-house movement.
However, today small living is not necessarily connected to an alternative or even anarchic lifestyle – it simply makes things easier, more economic and eco-friendly to focus on what is really needed in life without compromising quality.
To read more and/or purchase: https://www.braun-publishing.ch/en/interior-design/small-but-smart.html
Housing Market: Seniors’ Home Equity Rises $24 Billion In 3rd Quarter 2019 To All-Time High
From a NRMLA online news release:
“Research suggests that as we age, Americans will spend more of our hard-earned retirement assets on health care, such as insurance, prescription drugs, in-home care and other services that help us remain independent,” says NRMLA’s President Steve Irwin. “A retirement plan that includes the responsible use of home equity may be the best option that can help ensure healthcare spending doesn’t become a financial burden for many retired couples.”
(December 17, 2019) – Homeowners 62 and older saw their housing wealth grow by 0.3 percent or $24 billion in the third quarter to a record $7.19 trillion from Q2 2019, the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association reported today in its quarterly release of the NRMLA/RiskSpan Reverse Mortgage Market Index.
The RMMI rose in Q3 2019 to 259.19, another all-time high since the index was first published in 2000. The increase in senior homeowners’ wealth was mainly driven by an estimated 0.5 percent or $40.7 billion increase in senior home values, offset by a one percent or $16.5 billion increase of senior-held mortgage debt.
To read more: https://www.nrmlaonline.org/about/press-releases/senior-housing-wealth-reaches-record-7-19-trillion
Technology: Ikea Is “Picking Winners, Setting Trends” In Smart Home Market (The Verge Video)
For seven years, Ikea has treated the smart home as a hobby. That’s changing now that Björn Block’s Home Smart division has been promoted to the same importance as Living Room, Bedroom, and all the other Ikea businesses that have come to define the company.
Ikea faces the challenge of teaming up with Google, Amazon, Apple, and other tech giants while also battling them for primacy in the home.
Read the full feature here: http://bit.ly/38VyVH9
Architecture: “Monte House” By TACO Is “2019 Tiny Home Of The Year” (Dwell)
From a Dwell.com online article:
Situated on a sweeping two-acre lot, this 452-square-foot abode is just right for two.
In order to create a small yet comfortable vacation home for a young couple, the multidisciplinary workshop TACO, or Taller de Arquitectura Contextual, sited it in the corner of a two-acre lot, then employed built-in elements for an “intuitive” interior layout.
Rough stucco mixed with artisanal paint conveys warmth and texture, while precisely placed apertures connect the interior to the remote setting. “The objective was to achieve a reflective and contemplative place that links the occupant with the surrounding wild landscape,” said the firm.
To rad more: https://www.dwell.com/article/monte-house-taller-de-arquitectura-contextual-264baeaa
Architects: Stanton Williams’ “Fitzroy Park House” Best English Home 2019 (Modern House)
From a The Modern House online article:
Fitzroy Park, London N6
A stunning 6,200 sq ft space, this remarkable and sprawling house rises up through its surrounding landscaped gardens. Described by the Architects’ Journal as having a “beguilingly cave-like relationship to the outside world”, it is a bold vision of contemporary architecture in which the natural world has been thoroughly entwined with the design.
https://www.stantonwilliams.com/projects/fitzroy-park/
Recline by the pool, listen to the artificial stream winding its way through the gardens, meander across the footbridge: this home was conceived for those long, dreamy summer days.
To read more: https://www.themodernhouse.com/sales-list/fitzroy-park/
Homebuilding Trends: Japanese Prefab “Yō no Ie (Sun House)” By MUJI Is Durable And Efficient
From an Interactiongreen.com online release:
…the Yō no Ie re-imagines a life in suburban-rural areas, rather than urban-suburban. This reflects quiet yet significant social changes – or rather, shifts in life priorities of people and how they define happiness. In the 20th century, when society was excited about economic growth, everyone dreamed of living in cities, working at big companies by navigating a world of fierce competition, either spending an eye-popping amount of money on a small urban condo that quickly became a norm, or traveling hours to commute from a more affordable home in rapidly sprawling suburbs.
MUJI House released the “陽の家 (Yō no Ie, or Sun House)” in September, 2019, its 4th product since it debuted the “木の家 (Ki no ie, or Wood House) in 2004. Upon the release, they opened its model house at a glamping site called “Forest Living” in Isumi-City, Chiba which is about a 2-hour drive from Tokyo.
To read more: https://www.interactiongreen.com/muji-house-yo-no-ie-model-home/
