A Flying Wedge – Extreme 9 Square Foot House
As I imagined towing Nine Tiny Feet down the road it occurred to me that a triangle wedge would be much more aerodynamic. It also seemed like a three-walled house would use less lumber and would be a more efficient shape to provide sleeping space, after all our bodies aren’t square. I also wanted to be more true to the square footage requirement of nine square feet that I placed on myself in the beginning. I think this design is actually pretty successful in meeting those additional requirements, but I can already see room for improvement.
The floor itself is still nine square feet, except it’s now trapezoidal instead of rectangular. The main difference is the overall shape which looks much more like a a piece of pie than a house. Instead of a sleeping loft I’ve imagined two flip down plywood shelves that cover the kitchen counter and chair to form a flat surface long enough for a six foot person to sleep. The main room isn’t long enough to lay down so I’ve borrowed a little space in the form of a tiny cubby hole from the nose of the house for the occupant’s feet. Sleeping in this design would be like sleeping in a backpacker’s mummy bag.
Like in past designs the toilet is below the chair. Since this design is about exploring extremes I still imagine using a sawdust composting toilet. This bucket toilet would be well sealed from the main living area to avoid odor build-up inside the house. The space it occupies would also be vented to the exterior. You can learn more about sawdust toilets at Jenkins Publishing.
The roof would be metal with a down-spout at the low end to allow water to be funneled off for future use. A storage tank would need to be place in the sharp nose of the house. Due to the triangular shape of the roof a lip would need to be added along the two long sides to prevent the water from simply running off onto the ground. You can learn more about collecting rain water at The Good Human.
Below the window is a planter box designed to reclaim waste water from the shower drain in the main floor and sink. The planter box, or soil box, would have several layers of material and screens to facilitate filtering and processing of the water. You can learn more about grey water soil boxes at Grey Water Central.
There are a lot of good ideas in this design but I don’t think I’d ever build it this way. I really liked the traditional look of the original design. But I also like how this house is more aerodynamic, uses building materials more efficiently, includes more self-sufficient features, and crams most of the living space into the nine square foot floor plan.
So I’m going to let this cook in my brain a little more and see if I can come up with a hybrid that has more traditional aesthetics, a shed roof for easy rain water collection, and that’s still more aerodynamic than a brick. Stay tuned.
[...] put a more detailed description of the design on the Nine Tiny Feet project blog for those curious about learning more about this variation. My [...]
Hi Michael,
This is a great site. I think you are really on to something with this design. It not only looks cool, but its aerodynamic to boot!
I am happy to see I am not the only one who gets these tiny house designs stuck in their heads… While I may not have the drawing skills that you do (which really are fantastic by the way), I do have a pocket full of chicken scratch sketches that seem to multiply in my shirt pockets and wind up on the counter in the laundry room, with my wife shaking her head… “What’s he up to now??!!”
Every time I mention us moving into a tiny house, the entire family tells me “sure” build one in the back yard, and “you can live there, while the rest of us stay in here”
Oh, and here’s the other catch… it cant be too big to mess up the back yard… Thus started my search for the truly tiny, one man, all in one, self contained backyard escape pod.
This one takes my design one step further by placing it on wheels so I could even “leave” the backyard at some point
Thanks for sharing these wonderful designs with all of us… and feeding the inner “tiny house” junkie in all of us.
Hi Michael,
What about making it fold down so the towing height would be lower and therefor make it more towable?
I’m struggling to come up with something I can tow with my Camry hybrid as it has a “zero” towing capacity so I don’t want to tow anything heavy. I like my Camry and I don’t want to give it up for a guzzler.
I’ve looked at teardrops but I can’t stand up in those. Need at least a 6′5″ ceiling.
Let me noodle over the folding idea. I’m not sure how air tight a folding roof/walls would be, but then again… I’m not sure if that really matters.
I hear you on the lightweight issue though. I’m beginning to think that maybe the water handling stuff is better on a bigger house… or maybe I can find a way to lighten that up too.
I’m relatively new to Sketchup (free personal edition), but could you post both your wedge and “final” designs as unlocked component level Sketchup files? I’d like to try to combine some of the features from both with a few of the suggestions that have been posted (such as folding, etc.). I think it would be more meaningful if I could work on them with the correct dimensions and using similar software tools. Thanks so much. (I’ll post my drawings here if you’d like.)
Mike I’ll dig them up. I also have a new design which is drawn with much better quality. My SketchUp Skills have come a long way since my first drawings.
Thanks MJ. Newer quality Sketches would be great too. I’m looking forward to them being posted.
P.S. I’ve been referring your blogs to friends in the US and Japan. Thanks so much for all your wonderful work.