
Portland’s Small-House Movement Is Catching On - spking
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/style/portland-affordable-housing-solutions-tiny-homes.html?_r=0
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plan6
Nevermind the fact that all over the world people have been living in smaller
houses on average compared to those in the U.S. for many years.

But, what I think is unfortunate in house design and construction is that
houses are built for use < 100 years, aren't easily upgradable via conduits,
etc., and assume that weather and electricity/gas/water usage and cost as a
fraction of income and will stay consistent.

As for materials, Aerogel's Spaceloft
[http://www.buyaerogel.com/product/spaceloft-10-mm-cut-to-
siz...](http://www.buyaerogel.com/product/spaceloft-10-mm-cut-to-size/) that
could significantly decrease residential energy needs is barely spoken of, few
spend more on quality insulated windows, many are content with hardiplank vs.
masonry even though brick provides better insulation and doesn't need
painting, cold-formed steel is a better option and would reduce deforestation
in combination with increased taxes on the paper industry to drive consumers
to use electronic alternatives, the same crap roof shingles are used and few
use solar even as solar technology has vastly improved.

We could be building small modern castles that we could hand down, but instead
we still build cheap throwaways.

~~~
jon_richards
Isn't paper almost exclusively produced from fast-growing tree farms these
days?

~~~
vram22
Could be, but those fast growing species are sometimes non-native (to the
country), not integrated into the native ecological system over centuries of
adaptation and symbiosis, huge water suckers, stifle native plant and tree
growth, etc. And often the native forests with much greater biodiversity (and
multiple plants valuable and tradionally known and used for food, fibre, fuel,
firewood, shelter, herbs and medicines, etc., have been chopped down to plant
those monoculture tree farms for, say, paper alone. Seen and know of actual
cases of this in some parts of India I am familiar with. Even the state
goverments now know of this and there are now some efforts to reverse the
trend. An example: eucalyptus and wattle in the mountains of South India,
particularly the Western Ghats.

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supernintendo
A lot of people in these comments seem to be confused over the word "tiny",
despite the article never using that word. Tiny homes are a vague category but
generally under 400 square feet [1]. 800 square feet isn't small by my
standards (I grew up in a mobile home) but compared to the average American
home of 2,600 square feet it is [2].

By the way, more space-efficient housing is desperately needed for new real
estate developments in Portland. As a matter of fact, it should be mandated.
Real estate developers should not be able to treat this city like a personal
casino while working class families (many that have been here for decades) get
pushed out. In this regard, treating the issue as an outlet for "design
statements" is reflective of the problem. Shelter should be a basic human
right; hyperinflating the value of it when there isn't enough to go around is
to rub salt in the wounds of lower income people.

[1] [http://thetinylife.com/what-is-the-tiny-house-
movement/](http://thetinylife.com/what-is-the-tiny-house-movement/)

[2] [http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/04/real_estate/american-home-
si...](http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/04/real_estate/american-home-size/)

~~~
bickfordb
I live in Portland and I'm going through the planning process for an ADU
(accessory dwelling unit) over my existing garage in my backyard.

I believe the Portland ADU maximums are around 800sqft for the structure, so
if you're adding a level above your (20'x20') garage, the upper residential
level will be around 400sqft. A 400sqft footprint is certainly not unheard of
for an apartment, but for a standalone residential structure that includes all
the mechanical systems is relatively small. The tiny house community does seem
to be designing for much smaller (150-200sqft?) sized spaces.

Land-use wise, I agree that this housing is needed in Portland and other
metros with similar housing stock. Everyone wants to add housing, but no one
wants to tear down charming Victorians/Craftsman Bungalow blocks to make way
for more density / apartment buildings. As a result encouraging people to add
residential units in backyards and basements makes a ton of sense.

One thing that wasn't obvious in the article is that the city is simply
waiving the development fees for ADUs to encourage their construction.
Previously, one could have built the same backyard structures, but would have
had to pay ~$20K+ in development fees.

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lettergram
Having lived in an apartment that is probably could be considered "tiny house
size" at 250 square feet with my wife, just why?

I was living there with my wife and we couldn't really cook, the bathroom
sucked (literally 1.5 square foot of walking space), we couldn't do stuff like
yoga, I'd I wanted to order a box of something I had to be careful, pets would
have been awful (especially cats)...

I can go on and on, overall it was probably a worth while experience. However,
our quality of life dropped dramatically while we lived there (for about a
year). I'm so glad I now can actually stretch if I want to, make food, setup a
desk for each of us, etc.

~~~
icebraining
They're talking about 800-1200sq², not 250sq². But I've spent some time in a
320sq² rooftop apartment, and it was more than enough for a couple. It's
crucial that the layout and furniture are designed/chosen for the purpose,
instead of trying to shrink a larger home.

~~~
loeber
I think you mean ft^2, not sq^2. A square squared is a tesseract, a four-
dimensional object that is rather low on the priority list for most
homebuilders.

~~~
icebraining
Right :) I'm more used to m².

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jimmydddd
Serious Question. Do people not entertain at their homes anymore? If I want to
have three couples over for dinner, I don't see I could cook for and
accommodate them comfortably in these tiny homes. My in laws from Europe
typically come to stay with us for three months every year. I often have out
of town friends drop in for a few nights. What about having the family over
for Thanksgiving? Also, if the answer is just to go to restaurants/bars for
all social events, that would seem to be more expensive in the long run. Just
curious.

~~~
sampl
I'm not an architect or tiny house owner, but I have friends and family stay
in my large studio apartment fairly often.

A modern, open floor plan is a big help. If you stop building walled-off
kitchen/dining/family/living spaces, you have a lot more efficient use of the
space you actually use.

Reuse of space is also huge. You can temporarily rearrange furniture for a big
dinner and put it back before it's time to sleep.

Another angle... if you stand to save $100k building your house, you can save
a lot of money by putting up your family in a nearby hotel overnight.

~~~
wott
> _If you stop building walled-off kitchen /dining/family/living spaces, you
> have a lot more efficient use of the space you actually use._

I though that fad was gone. That's a nightmare in real use. I don't want the
meat grease smell in my bed. I don't want the kitchen noise while watching TV
in the sofa or chatting in the living room. I don't want the music or the
children noise in the kitchen. And I especially don't want all visitors packed
together in the same space 24/24, without any half-privacy time to spend in
smaller groups.

Oh, and since I am the kind of person who spends most of parties inside the
kitchen rather than in the living or dining room, how do I manage? :-)

~~~
ghaff
It's not necessarily either-or. I grew up in a very old house that a totally
separate dining room and kitchen. When I bought a house it was the same. After
a major remodel for structural reasons, the kitchen and dining room were
opened up--which turned out to be a big improvement--but the living room
spaces were still largely separate. This actually works pretty well for me.

In practice, when I have people over, we still spend a lot of time in the
kitchen/dining area--which is also sort of the "mud room" etc.--but the
entertaining/hangout area is still somewhat separated.

I think more open floor plans than was historically the norm make sense--
especially in smaller areas. But, if you have the space, walls can still be
useful.

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jseliger
Meanwhile, in Seattle, Micro Apartments have largely been regulated into dust:
[http://www.sightline.org/2016/09/06/how-seattle-killed-
micro...](http://www.sightline.org/2016/09/06/how-seattle-killed-micro-
housing). Seattle is doing somewhat better at affordable housing than SF:
[http://www.vox.com/2015/12/23/10657690/seattle-housing-
crisi...](http://www.vox.com/2015/12/23/10657690/seattle-housing-crisis), but
that's a really low bar and it is not doing as well as it ought to be.

~~~
1_2__3
Just because someone wants to live in a city does not mean the city is doing a
thing wrong by not doing every possible thing to accommodate them. That
Seattle article is practically bursting with entitlement; she's demanding the
neighborhood change to meet her living/working preferences.

Why? Why are her demands any more valid than the people who live there
already, or who can afford non-hyperdense housing and don't want to live in a
neighborhood with it?

It's hard not to see this as something like locusts complaining about farmers
trying to stop them from devouring their crops. Maybe, just maybe, the things
that make Capital Hill so compelling for her are the very things she wants to
change about it to meet her wants.

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mikestew
800 sq. ft. is considered "tiny"? Ours is considered to be "family of three or
four", worth half a million $, and it only weighs in at 1200 sq. ft. Yes, 50%
larger, but when I think "tiny" I think of those houses that would fit between
a couple of rows of corn in the garden. These are just mother-in-law cottages
before someone stuck a trendy name on them.

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pasta
This is a strange read for someone comming from a country where houses of 74m²
are normal..

~~~
cylinder
Even in California there are many houses around 70sqm.

My advice regarding NYT trend pieces remains the same: always disregard them.

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owenversteeg
I think calling an 800-1200sqft house "tiny" is a bit ridiculous. My apartment
is about 35m2, or ~400sqft, and it's still large enough to have a good-size
kitchen and bathroom, large wooden dining table, couch and comfy chairs, a
working area with a large desk and a decent amount of storage space. I have no
problem having any reasonable number of guests over.

~~~
justincormack
It is the average size of a new UK house I believe, just under 1000 sq ft, 3
bedrooms.

~~~
wott
In France, the average apartment is 66 m² (700 sq ft) and the average house
110 m² (1200 sq ft).

Per person, that's respectively 33 m² (350 sq ft) and 44 m² (475 sq ft).

I hope I got the conversion to barbarian units right, but I do not guarantee
it.

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Xeoncross
As a developer, I found taking several months off work to build a tiny house
very rewarding. I also now have a 100% formaldehyde (and other toxins) free
home for my son.

I am (slowly) posting videos if anyone wants to see how to build a 400ft tiny
house: [http://tinyhousemansion.com](http://tinyhousemansion.com)

I insulated the home to death and learned a lot about how houses should be
built to save money and reduce energy usage.

Entertaining people is limited to one family or so at a time, but since my
family is the smallest of our circles we almost always go to other people's
houses.

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jweir
Well, if it is catching on, it is not catching on in Portland. The new houses
being built are maximizing the square footage and taking up as much foot print
as possible.

Now some people are adding small ADU(additional dwelling unit) and these often
are small. They are meant to be rented out. But these are not primary
residences.

~~~
erentz
If Portland is anything like Seattle, the problem is that the absurd zoning
encourages developers to build larger houses to maximize their return on the
investment in acquiring the land. This is based on conversations with
architects and builders where I've asked about this specific problem.

This means that I could afford many newer houses if they were built out to
something like 1800-2200 sqft which would still be more space than I need. But
instead all new houses are built out to 3000+ sqft making them >$1m.

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Nickersf
Whatever, I've been living here in Portland since 1997 and to see what has
happened to the housing costs in the city in the last 10 years is sickening.
What's next a shipping container for 500k?

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Overtonwindow
This whole issue of affordable housing seems a bit ridiculous to me. The
people complaining about affordable housing are urban young people wanting to
live in San Francisco, Portland, etc. There are TONS of affordable housing,
but not in hip, rich places where these young people want to live. Come south,
Atlanta has tons of affordable housing. Austin Texas, Tampa Florida, Akron
Ohio for heaven sake's! There is no affordable housing crisis, there is a
crisis of unreasonable expectations and spoiled people.

~~~
CalRobert
Can I ride my bicycle in those places without being swerved at or screamed at?

~~~
divbit
This is going to sound like an exaggeration but it's not.. In my 5 years in
salt lake for grad school, every single year I personally saw someone get hit
by a car while riding their bike.. My first advisors other student got
"doored" while biking, and apparently my second advisor was hospitalized at
some point on his bike... Currently living in Portland which does feel much
safer while riding, maybe due to having bike lanes and signs everywhere..

~~~
CalRobert
Bike lanes and signs are important, but perhaps more than all that is just
having lots of other cyclists. When drivers become accustomed to looking for
cyclists, or even are more likely to be cyclists themselves who happen to be
driving at the moment, it makes a world of difference.

~~~
divbit
I definitely agree there is an element of "cyclist empathy" from being
cyclists themselves .. Probably doesn't help that in Salt Lake, 5 months out
of the year (July/ August due to heat and Dec-Feb due to ice) it is
impractical to use a bicycle as primary transporation, and that surely loses a
portion of people who might otherwise commute.

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chrisbrandow
Why not simply build larger individual units, but stack many of them
vertically? People don't like being cramped with nowhere to put their stuff.

~~~
yardie
Because a bit of air gap is a better sound/social/noise insulator than a thin
wall of concrete. I liked the idea of living in an apartment. But after the
dance troupe moved in above me and the screaming fuckfest adjacent to us I can
see why people prefer houses.

I was also told I couldn't barbecue, which as a guy that loves to barbecue,
has me looking at single family homes right now. In the same sqfootage and
number of living quarters.

~~~
Retric
Great sound insulation can be fairly cheap during construction. Sadly it's
generally an afterthought in the US and it adds around 2 inches to wall and
floor thickness.

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gm-conspiracy
So, the city is allowing mother-in-law suites to be built (and then rented)?

~~~
alistairSH
Looks that way. And seems reasonable.

In dense residential areas with mostly free-standing homes, they seem to scale
well. They don't dwarf existing units, they don't become eye-sores, etc. Done
well, the remaining rear yard becomes a cozy, quiet nook (albeit now
communal).

As far as I can tell, none of my local jurisdictions (NoVA) allow MIL
cottages. Arlington allows MIL apartments (basement, attic conversions) but
limits design/space and prohibits renting (literally only for family). Fairfax
doesn't even allow that.

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blhack
This has got to be one of the most out-of-touch articles I've seen on here.

800sqft is not "tiny". I live in an 800sqft house with two other people (my
girlfriend, and a roomate), as well as a dog, and while we have talked about
upgrading to a larger house at some point, it's never felt like a priority. We
certainly don't feel like we're participating in some sort of "movement" or
change in housing norms here (especially since our house was built in the
1950s).

Houses this size are really common here in Arizona. In fact, I'd bet that
800sqft is probably near the median for houses in my neighborhood.
([https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4185818,-111.9412412,3a,75y,...](https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4185818,-111.9412412,3a,75y,61.64h,76.99t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s1I3MBXj0oe-6jbjp1MmD-w!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D1I3MBXj0oe-6jbjp1MmD-w%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D83.483482%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656))

How brave of Portland to allow these homes to be constructed.

/s

~~~
tmat
not to mention they talk about a "movement." then come to find out none of
these people actually live in these.. they're just rentals.. so hilarious.

