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Tiny Houses are Big! Lloyd Kahn’s Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter

Lloyd Kahn has been documenting owner-builders’ house projects across the world for over 30 years. His books are chock full of captivating, beautiful photographs and valuable information for both the aspiring and active builder folks among us, and his latest book delves into the huge popularity of tiny houses.

Tiny Homes: Simple ShelterΒ (affiliate link) delivers a fresh look at the gamut of modern tiny houses and their owners, and the sheer diversity of approaches people are taking to scale back in an era where few could deny the need to address our massive consumption of energy and resources.

Tiny Houses: The New Wave of Living Small

Tiny houses are very prevalent in the media these days, and Lloyd was wise to make them the focus of his latest book. We all need to think about downsizing our shelter and reduce consumption. We don’t have enough energy left in the world to keep building massive, inefficient homes. Not only that, tiny houses are way more accessible for the aspiring builder than any other type of home.

Tiny Homes, in typical Lloyd fashion, covers a range of styles — houses on wheels, earthy houses, treehouses, kit houses, homes by architects, etc. Everything from Tumbleweed prefabs to small cob houses, to garden sheds and house boats are featured within. That’s one thing to love about Lloyd’s book — the sheer diversity of small structures represented.

Tiny Homes: Keep Close at Hand

The photo quality in the book is excellent, bright, and beautiful. This is a book to keep close at hand: on your coffee table or next to your bed to flip through dozens and dozens of times, and to share with friends. You’ll find new details each time you pick it up, with hundreds and hundreds of photographs to scan. Also sprinkled throughout are tips, philosophy, and practical information about building small.

tiny homes book - ziggy 2
Two page spread of my cob house in Tiny Homes

Tiny Homes is a great addition to your book collection. The most important thing it has to offer is inspiration. Lloyd shows that living in small houses doesn’t have to be cramped, drab, or dull. These homes are full of character that more than make up for a “lack” of square footage! No house featured is bigger than 500 square feet, and many are creative, beautiful, and very functional.

The message is clear: living small is not only much more energy efficient, but personal, expressive, and beautiful!

4 comments
  1. Steve Novy

    This is a fantastic book!
    I like that Lloyd Kahn publishes these in paperback so everyone can afford them.

    ..and they are making tiny promotional Tiny Homes books that are only
    1 1/2″ x 2″ !

  2. Terri

    Got this book for Christmas and absolutely love it! Several years ago my husband and I constructed several small buildings on our land for our kids to play in…a school house, trading post, jail, saloon and lookout tower. Now that they are growing up, I want to build a bunch of little cob, straw bale and pallet houses on the property for guests to stay in when they visit. Oh and of course, I would also like to build a cabin on a trailer bed for camping. Thanks for the inspiration.

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