1. INTRODUCTION
1. Abstract
The growth of population and urbanization has led to growth in volume of consumption. With projected human population of 9.3 billion in 2050, UN has expressed concerns regarding the increasing volume of consumption. This growth has a worldwide environmental impact. Which leads to economic growth attracting a large amount of population to the cities. If not taken necessary measures, cities will face the problem of over consumption and causing negative impact on environment in future.
Tiny House Movement is a social, architectural trend/movement where people are downsizing the size of space they live in. This simplistic lifestyle of living was originated from a book “Walden ” written by Henry David Thoreau in 19th century.
The paper studies a social/ architectural trend and analyses the potential of the trend to address the problem of over consumption.
2. Aim
To Study Tiny House Movement and Analyse its Potential of its Application in Metro Cities of India.
3. Objective
• To study the Tiny House Movement
• To understand the characteristics of tiny house movement applicable in India
• To study the potential of the trend/movement
• To identify the niche for tiny houses in Urban Indian context
• To understand the importance of multifunctioning interior spaces in today’s architecture
4. Need of Study
5. Scope of Study
6. Limitations of Study
7. Research Parameter
8. Methodology
2. Literature Review
2.1. Philosophy
The tiny house movement today is a result of the philosophy/thinking in 19th century. The American author, Henry David Thoreau’s firm belief in individualism lead him to live in a small wooden cottage/cabin in woods situated on Walden pond to experiment for simple living. He had firm faith in the individual’s ability to find a meaningful life, out of his experience in the cabin, he wrote a book (Walden).
“I went to woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
– Henry David Thoreau
From ‘Walden (1854)’
Most of us hate feeling cramped and a face a lot of crowd in everyday life, being stuck on a crowded bus, metro, or being stuck in traffic, and passing through packed market places. We prefer to be able to stretch out, and relax, but we can’t do that when people are invading our space. When Thoreau said “to front only the essential facts of life”, he didn’t mean to leave with comfort adjustments but be comfortable in a small spaces. Tiny houses are not about sacrifice. The statement is hard to be understood when we are used to use too much more space in order to achieve comfort though your house has to fit you. The similar approach towards life is also seen among the famous personalities.
“Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind, large one’s weaken it.”
-Leonardo Da Vinci
In above sentence, the discipline of the mind means the habit of living only with the essential facts of life. No extravagancy in terms of physical materials neither the grandeur. If a person has just optimum storage space, the first thing he/she will end up keeping will be the necessities in life. Hence there are no distractions to weaken the mind, neither in house nor in life.
“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”
– William Morris (Art and Craft Movement)
The amateur building enthusiasts and the professionals started building such tiny spaces/houses in USA and some other countries in world. It had not start as a social movement or trend by then. The movement was given a voice after publication of books ‘Not So Big House (1998)’ by Ar. Sarah Susanka and ‘The Small House’ (1997) by Jay Shafer.
“Rather than spend our budget on square footage we wouldn’t use, we decided to put the money towards making the house an expression of our personalities”
– Ar. Sarah Susanka
From ‘Not So Big House (1998)’
After the publication of the book ‘Not So Big House’ in 1998 the focus of the tiny house builders shifted to achieve maximum functional efficiency and comfort.
2.2. Origin of the movement
2.3. Philosophy
2.4. Inside the mind of a Clustro-phile (Chapter Review)
Book: A Small House
Author: Jay Shafer
Chapter 1: Confession of a ‘Clustrophile’
The author talks about being ‘addicted’ to the small spaces. The invention of new word ‘Clustrophile’ indicates that cluster is always considered to be unpleasant and also suggests need to look at the term ‘cluster’ with a different angle.
Writing own experience of constructing a small house, almost three times smaller than the minimum size to meet local limits. The apparent yet sudden realization of the fact of requirement of the minimum size requirement led to convert the base of the house from the earth to wheels to meet the standards as increasing the area of the house was not an option. The concern there was not to make a house with optimum space for two bigger just to meet local standards. To seek the advantage from the situation, author went a step ahead and created the an off grid house which he was able to carry along with his car to whichever city he wanted to live. The basic needs of a house are the service making it functional; Services including the electricity, water, heating and cooking. For electricity and heating, the best source of heat can be covered equipped with solar panels. Water can be obtained from the nearby spigot to fill the overhead cabinet in kitchen. Grey water can directly be drained to the garden. A dry compost toilet can suffice the need of two individuals for a week. There are multiple choices available for services you may want to have in your house. Here author makes an important point that ‘having choices is a luxury in itself.’
Living in such small places isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. The services are designed by keeping in mind the ease in maintenance, simplicity, sustainability and not neglecting the personal hygiene. It may not meet the conventional standards of America and may not be comfortable for everyone to live with. Living in a tiny house is nothing about sacrifice, but to focus on the essentials of life. One doesn’t have to deprive from his/her comfort while living small.
The ‘Clustrophilic’ people do exist and they like to keep things in order smaller the house, more ease to keep things in place. The key principle to design the house was to design accordingly the lifestyle of the person living in it, than running after the virtually needed spaces. To live in a house no matter how big, the people gravitate to one single space for most of the time in a day. This space becomes the central design element and author grabbed the opportunity to design the entire house around the central design element. These small houses become the medium of self-expression as a lot of personalization can be added to it matching the lifestyle of the occupant.
A ‘Clustrophile’ always tries to size the stuff down to necessities, and not every person has same necessities, hence this tiny house become the very personalizes asset of the individual/s living in it. Authors chose to live in a tiny house for various reasons, including environmental concerns like the amount of natural resources used to build a conventional American house, amount of green-house gases produced during winters, the amount of waste produced during construction. The entire house can be made in recycled materials; will have reduced use of fuel and electricity and also less volume to heat or cool. Finance was the second reason to prefer the tiny living over conventional. It takes relatively less time for construction and costs less. Though the per unit area construction cost may go higher; considering the amount of attention and precision given to the details, but overall cost is lower than a conventional American house. The role of multifunctioning interior spaces in tiny houses becomes more important. The user gets most of the return for their money. Smaller the spaces more simplified and organised living for the user. Author agrees with the fact that 100 square feet could be very less for people to live in but it’s an efficient way to live simply. Reason behind living tiny is not to make an effort to save the world; just that author is not patient enough to live in a large home. A self-sufficient house which focuses down to the essentials of life is what the writer wants. Author wishes to live in a small space than to spend life in maintain the large space.
Among top five reasons to live tiny, author would list simpler lifestyle, cost efficiency, social consciousness, sense of organization and reduced environmental impact. Author also speaks about his ventures on experimenting with the size of the tiny house and converting into smaller versions of the previous; so small that those versions can fit in parallel parking. That way you just have to find a place for free parking and that can become your home for couple of days. Author is basically concerned about the minimum size required for a dwelling as per standards in USA though it is possible to live in a very less area much more efficiently.
2.5. Tiny House and Psychology
2.6. Need of multifunctioning interior spaces