A few years ago we took notice of prefabricated home builders and one of the strangest has to be Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.
Tumbleweed sells shed sized homes most only offering about 300 square feet of space. You do the math thats 18×18 feet square. Just a little larger then a large garden shed and smaller then the average garage.
The Idea behind the company was to build homes with as little impact on the environment as possible but does lack of space really lower impact? Maybe if you only look at the problems of heating, cooling and materials but humans still have necessities that need to be met.
The cost of the homes is kinda outrageous considering their small size. Many that are not much larger then an SUV cost about the same. You can expect to spend about $600 a square foot almost 20 times the cost of an average home.
Are they attractive??? yes we are sure every little girl wants one for their play house but are they practical? Definitely not.
The fact is in future buildings we will have to provide not only the same but better comforts then we enjoy today. And considering the growing size of the world population we will have to do it at a price not just the wealthy can afford but for someone living in a third world country.
So what is this company really about?
In all reality no one will buy from this company at this price unless you are useto living either in a jail or a NYC single room apartment but they are pushing the edge and making people think.
Do we really need to overbuild and use materials that are more for show then sustainability and what products can we use to reduce our use of energy and resources.
Designers for the next 50 years will have to look at better use of insulation, solar, rainwater collection and renewable products like bamboo to cut our costs in half while increasing our value many times.
For more info visit
www.tumbleweedhouses.com