Cooperative Living June 2017 - 26

CloserLook | by Justin LaBerge, Contributing Writer
The New Living Space
Reimagining the American Dream
Tiny houses look like real houses,
with square corners, traditional siding
materials and pitched roofs. They
typically offer 100 to 130 square feet
of living space, and must be less than
8 feet 6 inches wide and 13 feet 6
inches tall to legally drive on the road
without a special permit.
house, two kids, a manicured lawn
and a well-maintained fence to keep
it all safe. For years, that's the dream
to which many Americans aspired.
But if you've scrolled through your
social media feed lately or watched one
of the countless reality shows about real
estate and housing, you might've noticed
that many folks are eschewing that
traditional American home in favor of
alternative accommodations.
The reasons people prefer these nontraditional
structures are as diverse as
the buildings themselves. Some want to
simplify and declutter their lives, some
hope to save money or reduce energy
use, and some just want to try
something different.
Here's a look at a few of the more popular
non-traditional home designs that might be
coming to a neighborhood near you.
A
TINY HOUSES
The tiny house trend got its start with a
man named Jay Shafer who built his first
miniature house on wheels in Iowa in 1999.
Shafer is a person who liked to challenge
the status quo, and after living in a variety
of non-traditional spaces over the years, he
started drawing plans for imaginary houses.
Over time, the designs got simpler and
24 | Cooperative Living | June 2017
smaller, and he was inspired to build one
for real when he learned they didn't meet
building codes. He took that as a
challenge, and realized that if he built the
house on a prefabricated, street-legal
trailer, it would be considered a trailer load
and not a house, and thus, not subject to
building codes.
This non-conformity has made tiny
houses a controversial issue in many
communities, and local governments
have struggled to balance individual
rights, local codes and public safety.
Their non-traditional design has also
made tiny houses more difficult to
finance and insure, although options
for both are available.
Despite these challenges, thousands of
people have purchased do-it-yourself plans
and pre-built tiny houses from Shafer and
other designers.
Unlike mobile homes or camping
trailers, tiny houses look like real houses,
with square corners, traditional siding
materials and pitched roofs. They typically
offer 100 to 130 square feet of living space,
and must be less than 8 feet 6 inches wide
and 13 feet 6 inches tall to legally drive on
the road without a special permit. The
weight varies based on the length and
rating of the trailer, but tiny houses are
typically much heavier than camping
trailers because they are made from
traditional building materials.
In March 2017, the city of Portland,
Oregon, launched a pilot program that
uses tiny modular units to help address
the community's severe homelessness
problem. Homeowners who volunteer to
participate in the program will have one
of these government-built tiny houses
placed in their backyard. Homeless
families who qualify for the pilot program
will occupy the units.
After five years, the homeowners
can take over the spaces and use them
for rental income, creating what city
officials hope is a win-win for property
owners and individuals experiencing
homelessness.
MONOLITHIC DOMES
As the name suggests, monolithic
domes are built as a single, cast-inplace
structure of concrete and
reinforcing steel.
Though domes have been built for
thousands of years, the first modern
monolithic dome was built by three
brothers in 1975 to store potatoes in
Idaho. The large open space and lack
of support columns make monolithic
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Cooperative Living June 2017

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