Tiny Cabin With Fold-out Porches

“Now here’s a tiny cabin with a twist that I wanted to show you.
It’s best built on stilts so you can make the best of use of the fold out porch area.
The tiny home is named The Forrester’s Cabin. It was built in 1996 and has a 24′x12′ footprint.
Once it’s closed up it looks just like a shed. But once the porch platforms are dropped it reveals the beautiful home inside.
It has a double bed alcove inside with a kitchen, bathroom, and more.…”

By Alex, May 8, 2013, on Tiny House Talk here.

Roderick James Architects

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:

9 Responses to Tiny Cabin With Fold-out Porches

  1. Roderick James strikes again ! He does design some stunning buildings You featured his home a couple of months back if i recall.
    He was one of the early Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) pioneers.
    Basically a bunch of intelligent hippies who took over an abandoned quarry in Mid Wales (1973 good year eh ?) and highlighted an alternative approach to living,energy consumption and sustainability. The place changed my life from visiting as a kid.
    He went on to create timber framed buildings as "carpenter oak and woodland". Who I failed to get a job with :0(
    Still my architectural hero.
    He's a dude
    Cheers
    Rich
    PS great radio interview with Him and the early CAT crew http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s393k

  2. It's a novel idea, don't get me wrong, but I just don't see the point. The cables are really going to limit your ability to move around on that porch.

    It will surely serve well to open up the interior to allow you the cabin to cool down on a warm night, and to have a better view.

    But consider the entire width dimensions… you have 12 feet. Obviously it's small, it's a cabin after all, but you can clearly see 2 thirds of that width is the cabin itself. In the areas where the cables are, you will have to duck under them.

    Basically, I don't see the point of this at all, except that the need for windows is lessened. But hey, if it is raining and you're at the cabin, you will need to have the doors up…which means you only have the very small windows on the end.

    And let's not forget the most obvious part of this…if the doors are open, all sorts of things are going to fly/crawl into the INTERIOR of the cabin.

    So I'll modify my first opinion and just say this is dumb.

  3. R Cedrique,
    Looks to me like a big advantage is when the panels are up, you have protection from thieves in a remote area. Can't see in, way more difficult to break in. Also, it looks to me like there are windows or glass doors on all walls, so that when the panels are down, the glass affords protection from bugs. Third, the interior is beautiful, with the exposed timber framing. Not dumb.

  4. Looks like an incredible idea for vacation cabins. When not in use, it can be battened down to be secure and appear as nothing more then a storage shed. This would keep it safe from thieves, weather and wild critters who may wish to invade. I think it's an awesome idea. Maybe a new cabling system could be designed that would be less invasive.

  5. This is the PERFECT scenario for buttoning up a woodland get-a-way. I have been dreaming of a back 40 tiny house in my woods, but fearful of it's vulnerability to hunters, weather, and other intruders. LOVE IT

  6. It's not going to look like a storage shed when it's all the way up…it's going to look like a meth lab.

    Have fun getting raided!

  7. Dear All

    Here is what matters: it feels right, it looks right and it does the magic thing: you see something, make assumptions and they are nicely "shattered" – I think it is called the "wow" factor these days although I don't know anybody who says "wow".

    Imagine to be in the cabin on your own – great for it to be open during the day and be able to make it safe during the night. I'd love to sleep in that bed.

    Imagine also: a bit of a book, a bit of bird song or music, a bit of rain or wind, the thought of a simple meal and a hot chocolate and a glass of red wine later. So this might be a remedy for couples who have the odd dispute: one of you can have a bit of away time. Cheaper than a divorce I think.

    And can you imagine anything better for guests to stay or the teenagers (or is it too good for the latter category)? It could be your office away from the house?

    R Cedrique – where do you live that makes you feel so insecure? And wherever you are you get stung by something or another – mainly things like bankers, oil producers, politicians and other unpleasant oddities. So give me a wasp or mosquito anytime…

    And CAT is brilliant – about an hour from where we are so great to hear that the idea stemmed from there.

    Sanna

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