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!
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.
Hygge (pronounced “Hoo-guh”) is a Danish word which far from having a single translation is an umbrella term for the Danish ritual of enjoying life’s simple pleasures - friends, family, graciousness, contentment, good feelings, a warm glow; in short a sense of well-being! It actually originates from a Norwegian word meaning well-being and found its way into Danish writing in the 18th century.
Hygge is intrinsic to the Danish lifestyle - the long cold winters and up to 17 hours of darkness mean spending a lot of time indoors staying warm and cosy! It works best when there is not too much empty space around you - an intimate space - in which you can feel cosy, relaxed and try to forget life’s worries - concentrating on the moment and sharing basic pleasures with family or friends, often over coffee, beer, pastries or other treats.
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.
Just to flag up a potential resource for all those interested in the Tiny House Movement as it develops in the UK; this page is an excellent grapevine for possible communal efforts to create a tiny house community etc.
I would love to see a small group of NestHouses together!
I have been working on the interior photography of the main space in the NestHouse this week - so here’s an early release to whet your appetite!
Now you could just have your NestHouse completed to shell finish - so it is ready for you to furnish, or, I could design and custom build every furniture item in the house - as demonstrated in the prototype; total Jonathan Avery style from inside to outside! More photos to follow soon - checkout the gallery.
Apparently I have been nominated in the Eco Home Builder category of the Ecofest UK Eco Awards 2016 - so thank you to who ever did that! Now, how about voting for me!?
Sunday 10th July 2016 sees the first ECOFEST UK at the North East’s largest conference and entertainment venue, the Metro Radio Arena. The event forms part of the North East Vegan Festival’s expansion and will feature a huge zone of ecological ideas, products, services and companies, as well as talks on a variety of Eco topics.
VOTE FOR ME!
Please feel free to support Tiny House Scotland by casting a vote for me here or click the logo below:
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!!
Tiny House Scotland featured at Edinburgh Science Festival year of Architecture and Innovation.
Although the NestHouse didn’t make it to be on display at Edinburgh Science Festival’s Tiny House Village at the Mound Precinct in Edinburgh; as detailed in the last post he is too heavy for the venue!
However as shown above we are featured on one of the information boards at the exhibition - I am so pleased! …Tiny House Scotland is effectively being displayed on a large advertising hoarding facing directly onto Princes Street for a couple of weeks!! WOOT WOOT!
I was in Town last night for another of @edscifest inspiring events in this year of Architecture and Innovation - listening to Alastair Parvin and Akiko Kobayashi speak about the Wikihouse project and Fountainbridge Canalside Initiative.
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…
I know it’s a bit Nineties but I accidentally wrote my Mission Statement this morning!
Tiny House Scotland is my personal crusade to bring together the physics of building science with aesthetic design and individual craftsmanship to create a new alternative for sustainable living. Whether it is an affordable starter home or a lifestyle micro living choice or the venue for a home based business my NestHouse can provide a beautiful solution.
NestHouse Medium with Entry, Sleep and Bathe modules.
As I get closer to revealing the interior of the NestHouse - here’s a little sneak peek at the stairs in their finished state! The NestHouse was always going to have a cosy sleeping loft but it HAD to be accessed by stairs - I just don’t get the ladder thing at all - far too exposed! Of course this is easier in the NestHouse than a Tiny House because there is nearly 3m clear internal width.
I have designed a compact stairway with marine grab handles at strategic points to ensure safe passage and they form a really nice feature of the living space whilst also providing a highly adaptable storage cupboard underneath…I have a few cunning ideas in the pipeline for that one!
The Stairs in the NestHouse by Tiny House Scotland.
What’s the state of play at Tiny House Scotland as we enter 2016? Well I’ve had a restful break over the Xmas period after building non-stop for the previous five months.
The NestHouse prototype is now fully finished externally - I finally got on to the lathe over Christmas and turned the roof finials (no, really, turning IS restful and meditative!!) so they are now in place on the roof - the last tick on that list!
So now I have to get my act together and crack on with the inside. The shell is complete and the interior spruce ply lining has already been cut and fitted, first fix electrics are all in place, the stairs to the sleeping loft are complete and the bathroom door is built. Now I just need to make the final decisions for the decoration of the panels - some will be natural and some will be painted.
After that it should be plain sailing to do the final fit-out. Well maybe not plain sailing; this is a prototype after all - so there are still a lot of decisions to be made, decisions which are fundamental to the ethos of the project. The electrics are 240 volt from an external 16amp pluggable supply but I will be adding a hybrid solar feed to this to allow off-grid use as well.
There is a wood stove to fit and a Jonathan Avery kitchen - the first in a while! In fact I think I will be building all the furniture for this NestHouse even though there will be very little actually built-in as I prefer a much freer and less caravan-like environment with freestanding, comfortable furniture - I have even designed a sofa so it looks as though I will be upholstering as well!
For those of you who have been following the project from the start, I hope to be able to unveil the finished NestHouse over the next few months, sorry but there will not be any photographs of the inside until it is sufficiently complete. There are orders for two more NestHouses in the pipeline… so it’s going to be a busy year!! Happy New Year to all!
Finials for the NestHouse at Tiny House ScotlandThe NestHouse from Tiny House Scotland
