Tiny House Can’t Be Moved

A downsizing dream has been stalled for one Anderson County man who spent his entire life savings building a tiny home that the state says is not certified to move into a mobilehome park. Bob Pritts built the 208-square-foot home himself. It’s only 8-feet wide and 26-feet long, but is equipped with a bathroom, kitchen, … Read more

Living Large in Small Spaces

TreeHugger Founder, Graham Hill, Lives In A Mind-Blowing 420-Square Feet ‘Tiny Home.’ His home is a prototype of spaces from LifeEdited, Inc., a company dedicated to showing people how living in small spaces can actually be a good thing. In the video, we see Graham uses just 420 square feet of space to sleep, host … Read more

The Politics of Tiny Houses

As much as he enjoys talking about design, what Jay Scaafer really wanted to talk about in this interview was the politics of tiny houses. Why building and zoning codes are stacked against tiny houses, how the costs of purchase and upkeep compare to the big houses he calls “debtors’ prisons”, and why, when the … Read more

Little House on the Trailer

Dee Williams decided to downsize from a 1,500 square foot home to a 84 square foot home after a trip to Guatemala. She built her current home, “The Little House,” herself for about $10,000. With a propane tank for heat and electricity coming from solar panels, Williams cost of living runs extremely low. Consider the … Read more

Cornell Students Build Sustainable House in Nicaragua

Over winter break, Cornell students began building an affordable and environmentally sustainable model house in Nicaragua. The students, who are part of Cornell University Sustainable Design — an organization that promotes sustainability through design — traveled to Nagarote, Nicaragua to build the house. The house will serve not only as a home for a family, … Read more

The Social Unit

Wouter Kalis and Corinne de Korver are two Dutch designers who have long been aware of the overall importance of sustainable accommodations throughout the world. Based in Amsterdam, the duo are dedicated to socially-conscious designs that incorporate simple and often recyclable elements, such as their most recent piece, “Social Unit.”  Devised as a solution for … Read more

Bringing About a High Degree of Economic Justice

In the 1930s, after a prolonged nonviolent struggle, Sweden and Norway “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and thereby created the basis for something different. When the 1 percent was in charge, both countries had a history of horrendous poverty as hundreds of thousands emigrated to avoid starvation. … Read more

The Lightest Material on Earth

The material has been dubbed “ultralight metallic microlattice,” and according to a news release sent out by UC Irvine, it consists of 99.99% air thanks to its “microlattice” cellular architecture. It is so lightweight that the research team consisting of scientists at UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and Caltech say in the peer-reviewed Nov. 18 issue … Read more