I am very happy that my NestHouse has ended up in Lloyd Kahn’s new book - Small Homes - the Right Size - on sale as of 1st April 2017. Especially having heard Lloyd speak in Kirkcaldy last year. Shelter’s first building book in three years, it covers homes from 400-1200 sq. ft., smaller than a typical American home, and larger than a tiny home - in other words - just right! There are 65 buildings shown, with a variety of designs, materials, and locations.
From Lloyd Kahn: This is, I think, the best building book we’ve ever done. (Yes, I’m sure I’ve said this before, but it keeps re-occurring to me.) Shelter is everyone’s favorite; it captured the times; it inspired thousands of homes. Builders of the Pacific Coast is in some ways, my best book. It’s an odyssey of discovery where the reader rides shotgun with me over a two-year period — cohesive and focused.
BUT Small Homes is so useful to so many people in this era of astronomical home prices and rents, that I think it’s hugely important. It offers alternatives to people looking for rentals on Craigslist or homes on Zillow. Here are 65 very different homes, of different materials, in different parts of the world. The idea, as with all our building books is to use your hands to create your own shelter.
Small Homes the new book from Shelter Publications / Lloyd Kahn
The NestHouse featured on ITV Border Life, friday 20th Jan 2017. Article about Scotland leading the way with small scale buildings. Click through to watch. NestHouse at 8mins!
People living rough on the streets will soon be offered permanent accommodation in a new “village” for the homeless (Mike Wade writes).
Under plans announced by an ethical business — endorsed by the actor Leonardo DiCaprio during a recent trip to Scotland — 20 individuals will next summer be able to take up places in “Tiny Houses” in Granton, north Edinburgh.
The Social Bite village will provide a “managed environment” designed to help those who have been sleeping rough adapt to a new, secure lifestyle.
Social Bite’s existing sandwich shops help to provide food for the homeless in four Scottish cities, and a quarter of its 100 staff were formerly on the streets. Profits are ploughed into charitable causes.
Josh Littlejohn, Social Bite’s co-founder, said the housing initiative was the natural extension of its work. “Our main raison d’être is to make a dent in the homelessness figure,” Mr Littlejohn said. “We’ve engaged in the employment, the support work, in giving free food; at some point we were always going to come full circle and consider the roof over someone’s head.”
The venture is designed to help village residents move into permanent accommodation after 12 months. With their new-found security will come improved prospects for employment, according to the project’s backers, and a chance to break a cycle of poverty.
About 400 people report themselves homeless in Edinburgh every night, obliging the city council to provide temporary shelter, usually in bed and breakfast accommodation or in a hostel. Each bed costs £47 a night, amounting to a bill over the year of £6.97 million in Edinburgh alone.
“It is a broken system,” Mr Littlejohn said. “Typically the accommodation is run-down but privately owned for profit. People have to be out on the street by 10am every morning. Realistically they have very little chance of a job.”
While its food business is restricted to Scotland, Social Bite’s fame has spread and it was endorsed in Edinburgh last week by DiCaprio and last year by George Clooney.
The new village will be on land owned by EDI Group, a development company owned by Edinburgh council. Each house will be built at a cost of £30,000, providing a shared WC and shower, a lounge area and a small kitchen.
The buildings are designed by Tiny House Scotland, a Linlithgow business that claims to fuse “building science with aesthetic design and individual craftsmanship to create a new alternative for small-scale sustainable living”. Bruce Mickel, of the housebuilders Mactaggart and Mickel, will offer technical support.
The units are transportable and, should EDI Group develop the land, Social Bite would be able to relocate the houses to another suitable location in the future for reuse.
Tiny House Scotland is very proud to be involved with social entrepreneurs Social Bite in a project to build a Tiny House Homeless Village in Edinburgh next summer. The Tiny Houses will be based on the modular “NestHouse” developed by yours truly, Jonathan Avery!
Social Bite’s co-founder Josh Littlejohn said: “The Social Bite Village plan hopes to create a full-circle solution to the issue of homelessness - from housing to support to employment.
“In doing so we hope to alter the course of some of Scotland’s most vulnerable people for the better - swapping a destiny of poverty and exclusion for one of compassionate support and inclusion.”
All the units being built in the village are transportable and could be moved to another site in the future.
Joan Griffiths, vice convenor of City of Edinburgh Council, said: “Tackling homelessness remains a priority for the council and we work closely with our third sector partners to provide services for people who are homeless.
“Josh and the Social Bite team do so much good work for homeless people across the city already and we look forward to working with them on their plans going forward.”
The Nesthouse - Moveable Modular Small Eco-house System.
I have finally photographed the bathroom in the NestHouse Bathe Module - no easy feat due to its ultra-compact nature!
James at Omnitub.
The bath is a superb Japanese style deep soak tub from Omnitub which is only 1050mm long.
The Omnitub is a high spec. superbly crafted product and although very compact, it is much deeper than a standard bath so the theory is, you can submerge up to your neck. It might not be to all tastes and you could easily have a shower cubicle in its place - but the beauty of a prototype is being abled to experiment with such things and follow one’s instincts!
The only element missing in the bathroom now is the toilet. I have researched every form of composting toilet to death; several times!!
The problem is I am still not convinced by any of them - from the £20 bucket to £3500 incinerating types. We have had long discussions about poo, wee and skid marks (!!!) and I am still of the mind that if the Romans could do toilets why should we go back to the stone age? OK, that’s not strictly correct, but for me personally, the idea of a waterless toilet (excepting ‘Long Drops’) is just foul. Anyway that’s just the tip of the pooberg, I wasn’t intending to discuss this at length here…just show the Bathe module!
NestHouse bathe Module - basin and deep soak bath.
Tiny House Scotland is now offering a more structured Visit & Consultation at the NestHouse.
So if you are contemplating commissioning a build from TIny House Scotland or are preparing to self-build, or perhaps you are just curious about Tiny Houses, why not come and receive a one-on-one guided tour of the NestHouse followed by a two hour consultation to discuss your own project.
You can pick Jonathan’s brains and benefit from the two years worth of research and development that has produced the NestHouse as well as his 30 plus years as a craftsman, designer and builder.
In line with his passion for Small Living and its potential place as a solution in the housing crisis, Jonathan is also happy to host tailored visits and talks for non-profit educational and environmental organisations.
The NestHouse and I are happy to have been featured in an article in Campfire - the online magazine for those who love the outdoors. They have written an excellent little article about Tiny Houses which gives a good contextual overview of this US phenomenon which has been part of my inspiration to create an innovative and sustainable new housing form.
Thanks for the amazing feedback on the last post - I am humbled and amazed!! It’s hard work being self-motivated on such a comprehensive project for so long, so it’s great to find that maybe I haven’t gone mad and lost the plot! PS. there’s a full size shot in the gallery.
So here’s a view in the opposite direction towards the bathroom and sleeping loft. I am still working on the sleeping loft although it’s not far off, but the bathroom is still a bomb site having been finished once and then redesigned and ripped apart again (twice!) - oh well, that’s what prototypes are for!
I had a delightful twilight photoshoot with the NestHouse last night - here’s a preview! I suppose it is a bit if a sneak peek of that well kept secret - the interior… I hope it looks inviting?!
We had a family party this weekend with friends and family travelling long distances to visit and celebrate Jo’s birthday. As a by-product, this also amounted to the NestHouse’s debut public event with around 40 curious party-goers taking the tour!
Mind you, it has had quite a few previous visits at various stages of construction by potential clients, but not in it’s new location and virtually finished (we won’t mention the bathroom yet!).
It was an exhausting but rewarding couple of hours showing people around and explaining the ideas behind the NestHouse. The feedback was tremendous and at times embarrassingly fulsome and gushing (for me)! Those familiar with my design styling and details over the years certainly spotted them and declared it totally “Jonathan”. There were several people ready to “move in immediately” and a couple of possible sales leads too. All in all a reassuring debut for the project…I’m a happy boy!!
The NestHouse kitchen is now finished, so here is a tiny house tiny detail to hopefully whet your appetite!
I suppose it’s a new interpretation of one of my Jonathan Avery kitchens, but this time with the added contrast of natural plywood edge finish to my usual JA Paint colours. I am amazed and flattered to still be getting Kitchen enquiries (6 years after we closed production!!)… but regret to say that JA Kitchens are ONLY available as part of a NestHouse from Tiny House Scotland.
I am now moving on to the larder storage area and under stair storage/furniture modules. Not far now!
In an effort to pull together the Tiny House Scotland story so far and shape the ongoing direction, I have been working on this presentation slide show. Hopefully it will help prospective clients understand what I am trying to do with the NestHouse…
