Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter (The Shelter Library of Building Books)

I got this book to read over the Christmas break after reading 'Builders of the Pacific Coast'. I loved this book even more (although I do heartily recommend the former too)! Some reviewers seem to have missed the point. This is NOT a 'how to build your own house' book. It's a collection of lots of pictures & some details of unusual, quirky, thinking outside the box homes & structures which all have their small size in common. Many of the buildings featured do have blogs, websites or other information included for those who would like to learn more about, say cob building, straw bales etc & there is a directory in the back. Actually many of these buildings are site specific & use what was available to the builder -that's the point. What this book IS, is an opportunity to see pictures of inspiring buildings which you otherwise might never have a chance to see, an encouragement to have a go at creating something yourself & a starting point on how you might achieve that. Thank goodness for people like Lloyd Khan & all the people included in his books. I will look at this book again & again & I will look at potential, recyclable, building materials I might come across in a new light.

This book is an interior designers nightmare - and it is an individualists dream.The architecture of conformity built to house the masses since, I guess, the industrial revolution, has been tried and rejected by most of the people featured in this book. Within moments of flicking through it I realized that all the Interior designs TV shows I have seen have stripped away the identity of the person intending to live the in the home featured, it often seems that the goal of 'contemporary design' is to conceal a life, leaving a sterile enviroment with the threads of an individual life removed.These incredible 'Tiny homes' have their makers' mark's all over them. They are small spaces with full lives lived within each of them, all there to see. They have dropped out, and stepped back from the mortgages, the banks, and the debts and, often, the grid, and the expectations and limits of convention and formed a home to call their own, with their own hands. Boats, treehouses, cabins, vans, cob houses all feature ...something to gladden the hearts of those of us that want to live more by using less, and have to get creative along the way (because society has failed to do so to date).The imaginations of these makers are amazing. A great, very inspiring book :)

although i am the last person to be able to build a house of my own, alas, however small, this book is full of beautiful amazing abodes others more skilled have managed to create and which inspire me to somehow, somewhen, get someone to help me build a similar place in much colder, wetter old England (there are very few from this country featured in it as the author is american) either as a main low-carbon abode or as a studio, preferably completely off the grid and self-sufficient. I wish someone would produce a similar book - at reasonable price (Tony Wrench's on his particular style of build is now over-the-top expensive second hand) - about not only similar builds here but also places you might be able to 'buy' them at reasonable price off the peg, as seems to be possible in America. Highly recommended

Very enjoyable book. Lots of inspirational house designs to look at and take ideas from. The pictures cover a diverse range of small homes and shelters in different landscapes and countries. Plenty of ideas here if like me your objective is to take up this lifestyle.

This is just such a terrific book! the picture quantity and quality is exactly what you want. Perfect for the casually interested as well as those wanting more info on the Tiny Homes movement. It's lead me much deeper down a path that I"m more than happy to follow. I've already bought my fifth copy to give to friends and family. If your thinking about it just buy it, it won't disappoint... and the web links featured within are great too. Look, it's Lloyd Kahn, he knows what he's talking about. The 21st Century is already looking better.

If you ever want to know what it's like to live in a tiny house then this is the book to inspire you to live the simple life! It's about real people living in homes they have created for themselves in very different environments. You will learn so much about how to live off grid.It's top of my favourite tiny homes books!

Nicely presented book, make a good present. Lots of lovely, pretty photographs but very little of the practical advice I was hoping for. Not unhappy I bought it, just not quite what I thought it would be.

Wonderful book full of great ideas for projects, if you have the means and the opportunity but if not, its also a super coffee table book for dreamers of freedom. The tree house of our childhood, the 'camp' in the woods ........ These are the little homely nests so many of us would love to build and live in if the authorities would let us 'get away with it'. The whole book is a treat from cover to cover.

Better than a Google Search because it has a qualified person putting it together. One for the book, 0 for Google on this one! I've seen some of these homes reviewed online, but this gives new information, and almost all of the homes are new to me. Fantastic, and my kids like it too. Just had to sharpee over a couple of nudees. It will be a great coffee table picture book, just as "The Cabin" by Dale Mulfinger

こういう家の作り方があるんだ、という興味が湧きました。

auch mir gefällt das Buch ganz toll, und der Preis ist sehr fair.Das Buch gliedert sich in 8 Kapitel, siehe Foto. Und es kann über einen Code auf das iPad als App geladen werden. Das ist Toll. Ich finde es sind sehr sehr viele Informationen drin, aber wenn man den ganzen Weg gehen will, fehlen natürlich Grundrisse und Anleitungen, die man aber evtl. über die angegebenen Websiten findet.Sehr viel Lesestoff, bin froh, dass ich dieses Schnäppchen entdeckt habe :)

Ce livre permet une approche variée des tiny houses. On sort du modèle standard roulant avec lit en mezzanine. Il y en a pour tous les goûts, en bois, en boue ou en paille. Certaines constructions se trouvent en France. Très chouette!

Lloyd Kahn has a lot to answer for. He bumped us out of our housing preconceptions as shelter editor of Whole Earth Catalog, blew our housing views away with indigenous vernacular housing around the world in Shelter, excited and encouraged us with Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter, and enticed us further with Builders of the Pacific Coast. Now, about the time we have regained equilibrium and settled into an expanded comfort level, here he is with Tiny Houses. And he threatens us with Tiny Houses II. Incorrigible. There is no stopping such a man. If you visit his blog at [...] you will see that he is also into fitness, so it is likely we will have to adjust to many more books from him. He is a leading cause of the ongoing need to build more bookshelves.The size of new American homes nearly doubled from 1970 to 2010. With the real estate crash and continuing widespread unemployment there is a whole lot of wallet tightening going on. There is also a lot of rethinking about how to live. Many people are dropping out of the consumption game. Tiny houses are extreme examples of the trend. The smaller the house, the more likely it can be built without a mortgage. An ever-growing number choose to build and live in something that is not only less expensive to build but less expensive to heat, cool and maintain. The LittleHouses group, to which I belong, is both the largest and busiest of any Home Building Yahoo! Group.The tiny house trend is not confined to any one place, although areas of mild weather are generally more suitable than places with extreme winters because of more typically thin building envelopes, which limit insulation. There are exceptions and included here is a glorious stone and timber house on top of a Colorado mountain.Tiny houses require less land and in fact can be portable. Sections of the book are Tiny Homes on Foundations, Tiny Homes on Wheels, Tiny Homes by Architects, Prefabs and Kits, Earthy Materials, Treehouses, On the Road, and On the Water.Most won't live in tiny houses forever. They are most appropriate for singles. With significant others and/or children, there is insufficient room to suit most people. One answer could be connected multiples with one unit serving as kitchen and dining, others for bedrooms and living. Most could be anchored but one could be used for travel.This book is inspiring, uplifting and offers encouragement for a sane and fun way to make fewer dollars go further. Profusely illustrated with 1,300 illustrations, the price is about two cents per picture. Whether or not pictures are worth a thousand words, this book is a heck of a bargain.