The Tiny Home Project
On our Build School courses we share the basic fundamentals of construction, and encourage people to use what they have to build what they need. However, we believe the best way to practice the skills is getting your hands dirty, and undertaking real projects. This year, our Build School groups will create 16 Tiny Homes for affordable sale, based on a design and materials list which we will publish openly at the end of September.
In our present housing crisis, the skills we share on Build School have never been more valuable. In the past, we’ve directed the huge energy our community brings to using these skills at Build School into creating structures for other mission aligned projects, for example, building a HQ for Hometree in our last series.
This year, and just for this season, our Build School groups will focus on creating Tiny Homes. Faced with extreme rents and house prices, uncontrollable construction costs and the difficulty faced in securing mortgages for so many people across Ireland, we believe Tiny Homes offer a different way for people to secure their own home.
We believe Tiny Homes are a fantastic first step for anyone who wants to embark on the owner builder journey - those who have access to or have saved enough to afford a piece of land. Or those who have a property in need of great renovation but who might not have the funds to do the construction work just yet. Paying and rent and trying to save simultaneously can feel nearly impossible and these small studio spaces can provide the perfect impermanent housing solution to help save more money to reinvest into forever homes.
By the end of 2022, we will have taught over 240 people how to build these low cost structures whilst learning transferable building for use in any project. Be it out of stone, timber, earth or concrete block.
The Tiny Homes will be built to full EU standards and because they are not permanent structures are not subject to planning permission. They will be built from extremely high quality, ecological materials and to full passive house standards.
