Article by Yuka Yoneda, 05/01/12
About Lloyd Kahn
Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the
Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include
Shelter,
Shelter II (1978),
Home Work (2004),
Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008),
Tiny Homes (2012), and
Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:
Fabulous. I looked at all the photos and read most of the story. It's great. Thanks, Lloyd.
K
Hey Lloyd, I saw this today and thought I would share.. pretty awesomely ambitious for a 16yr old… http://bitsandpieces.us/2012/05/09/16-yr-old-builds-tiny-mortgage-free-home/
You may also be interested in the Sustain MiniHome and the eco-cottage resort concept at the Timber House in Brighton Ontario. See http://timberhouse.net/ecocottage/new-resort/ for more.
MiniHome is a product of designer Andy Thomson's fascination with cottages. As he put it, “At some point, almost everyone has wanted some kind of escape, a wilderness retreat, a return to a simpler life – closer to nature. This project started with yearning for that kind of simplicity. The MiniHome emerged from this idea – plugged into nature – a kind of in-between place that allows a relationship and mediates between our own nature or physiology and the biosphere.” The MiniHome's creative spark rests on the insight that trailers and trailer parks are the perfect foundation for sustainable cottaging. As Andy states, “Trailer parks, as a form of housing development are extremely light on the land and their infrastructure is nowhere near as disruptive of landform, soils and flora as any other type of domestic architecture. The land tenure is often ingeniously conceived, and results in common facilities (park, laundry, pools, etc.) that are truly a shared community asset.”