Have you ever wondered what it takes to build a tiny house? Use the Architects in Michigan that you can trust. Tiny houses have become a very popular trend these days as the cost of construction and the cost of land is going up, with the economy improving lots of, factors of material costs rising, or impacting the price of materials. And tiny houses are a interesting concept for residential projects because they do include everything one would need for the basic amenities of living, sleeping, eating, bathing, but they’re all put together in one compact little box. often times they’re put on the back of a trailer or a custom built platform, that can be towed around. So your tiny house could actually be sort of a mini mobile home. And this is something that architects in Michigan have been following recently because of the growing trend and the growing interest in developing small residential projects.
So we get asked often, if, if we could design a tiny house and if that is something that our office does or, is capable of doing. And our answer is of course, yes, we would love to do a tiny house for anyone. they are very interesting project types. And what is very interesting about them is that it forces the designer to design in three dimensions, not just the floor plan and the ceiling height. , if, if you’re designing a single story building, you’re designing, , the floor plan layout of walls and doors, but because you have to cram in so much a space into a small little unit for a tiny house, you have to think three dimensionally and try and make surfaces and walls and spaces a little more multifunctional or multitask then a typical house. And so this is a interesting solution to a complex problem.
And architects in Michigan are well trained in providing these types of complex solutions and making, making things work when one needs the help in getting that design created. And so tiny house projects are small but very complex. They may look simple, but a well thought out. Tiny house is just as complex as a standard, traditional full sized house or a commercial building for that matter. They all still require a lot of spatial design. The electrical design, mechanical design of your air, ventilation in your plumbing, and all of that needs to fit into a small, a small footprint for a tiny house. We’re talking about a footprint of 200 square feet to 300 square feet. Some are even smaller than that, so it’s almost the size of a small travel camper. but something a little more customized for the individual so they feel more at home than if they were on vacation in a camper.
And that’s the big difference between a tiny house and it in a camping trailer is that tiny house designs have to be thought more of as a, as a permanent residence for someone rather than just a temporary shelter away from the elements like a camper is treated. And in most cases, a tiny houses are designed to be what is considered off grid. That is that it’s a self-sufficient residential unit that doesn’t require a public utilities so they can run off of a gas or electricity so that the homeowner have a tiny house, doesn’t have to rely on city utility or township utility. that includes the plumbing. So architects in Michigan can help clients come up with these complex solutions for electrical and plumbing needs of a tiny house. speaking about the plumbing, , there are particular products out there, especially with the growing trend of tiny houses that are become more readily available, such as composting toilets and multifunctional sync, and drain what they call gray water systems where your sink water can be recycled and used for, your, your toilet plumbing.
And so using a composting toilet and this gray water system, a tiny house owner can be pretty much a hundred percent off the grid and not rely on any utility, but also not create any waste of that is not compostable or recyclable on their property wherever the tiny house has placed. And so this is a very fascinating subject because those people that are interested in tiny houses and building their own tiny house or working with an architects in Michigan to design a tiny house is that they’re very sustainably minded and, and, and environmentally conscious. So the reason being for their desire for a tiny house is to make as little impact on the natural environment as possible. And the mobile, the mobile aspect of a tiny house, the mobility makes that even more so for these clients because if they don’t reside in one place forever, , using that tiny house, hitching it up to a truck and moving it from destination to destination, then they’re not, creating a negative impact on that environment for perpetuity of that house.
And so the sustainability aspect, the environmentalism and the complexity of tiny house projects makes them a very interesting, typology for architects in Michigan to tackle. And our office is a creative design thinking office that is looking forward to design any solution that a client would bring in and ask us to help them solve and provide them with an excellent design building, whatever it may be. If that includes the tiny house, we’d be more than glad to look at that for you. And we also are looking forward to the future where housing is no longer a crisis. And I think tiny houses are one piece of the puzzle to solve that larger issue of housing as a whole for the entire country and the globe.
If you are considering downsizing your belongings and going off grid, then a tiny house may be something to consider. If you need help designing one then reach out to architects in Michigan for a high quality design that meets your needs, and is safe and meets code.