Trends may be come and go, but the Tiny Housing Movement has the potential to solve a nation-wide housing crisis.
As we speak, the Tiny Housing Movement is slowly but surely gaining momentum in Australia. This style of building, which originally gained traction in the US, is also known as the Small House Movement. And it’s all about simplifying the way you live, as well as downsizing the scale both architecturally and socially.
At the moment, one of the most fundamental problem areas of the housing crisis in Australia is the significant mismatch between the housing lifecycle and the family lifecycle.
The concept of the family lifecycle is simple. As children grow into adults and eventually look to buy their own homes, the household shrinks. Family dynamics constantly change. This is known as the family lifecycle.
The conventional houses that go hand in hand with the family lifecycle are built and then wholly or partially demolished to meet the needs of a decreased household size. These houses or even the removed sections become rubbish. And like the family cycle, this process is continually repeated. Resources and money are both wasted.
This disconnect is having a range of flow-on negative effects on people both personally and financially, not to mention the environment as well.
The issue with traditional housing is that it’s too costly and it takes too long to complete, and in supply chain terms, the longer the chain, the less visibility (of the supply chain), the harder it is to manage. Prefabricated Tiny Housing will be able to shorten the supply chain exponentially, especially if the Tiny House Movement is implemented.
Unlike traditional housing, Prefabricated Tiny Housing seems to be a match made in heaven with the Tiny House Movement, due to its ability to implement the Agile Housing Model.
The Agile Housing Model is based on a modular system of construction where all modules are made out of steel and built off site typically in a controlled environment. Unlike the traditional method of building, the modular system allows for every part of the house to have extremely high residual value.
Furthermore, one of the best points of differentiation from this innovation is that it’s completely customisable. There are many options offered in terms of styles, colours and finishes for modular homes. Thanks to technology, potential buyers even have the opportunity to look through a multitude of compartment options and finishes, separately and individually, for any part of the house. The design aspect certainly isn’t compromised, if anything it is enhanced. Any modules no longer needed by the original owners may be useful for someone else. So as well as the modular system being an environmentally sustainable model, rather than subtracting from the pocket, the opposite is being done.
To put it simply, prefabricated Tiny Housing is both environmentally friendly and sustainable, unlike traditional stick build. So the first point of differentiation is the green factor. Prefabricated Tiny Housing is high in energy star ratings and low in running cost for living. As well as having exceptionally sufficient thermal protection and excellent acoustics performance. Green energy generation and harvesting technology are integrated into the design to maximise level of sustainability, with green roof and vertical garden wall as the perfect accessories.
The second point of differentiation is speed. One house can be built in as fast as eight weeks as opposed to twelve months. And the third point is recyclability. A prefabricated Tiny Housing can be completely recycled from one loving owner to the next, whether that’s the whole house or specific compartments.
In addition to the prefabricated Tiny Housing being both customisable and extremely quick to build, they are also totally transportable and relocatable. And finally, the land usage required to build a Prefabricated Tiny House is minimal, requiring just 3×6 metres of land.
A prefabricated Tiny Housing built using the modular system could be a townhouse, duplex or even as a collection of townhouses – the possibilities are endless. And though the house itself might be considered relatively small, it certainly is complete. Each house is fully furnished with a gully-type kitchen, one spacious full bathroom, one loft master bedroom and a pull-down bed kept incognito inside a multi-functional cupboard which could be used as a study when the bed is pulled up.
As it stands, Australians are largely yet to cotton on to the Tiny Housing Movement, however a number of advocates lobbying for the movement do currently exist.
In an ideal world, the combination of the Tiny Housing Movement and other forms of prefabricated housing are a match made in heaven, however still much progress needs to be made for this fantasy to become a reality.
Visit powerhousehomes.com.au for more information
Additional Sources:
https://www.procore.com/jobsite/prefab-homes-14-of-australias-best-companies/
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