Kirstendirksen

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Steve Job's Google of the 60s: Whole Earth Catalog revisited (+ homestead tour of a former editor)

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Duration: 16:34
Updated: 28 Oct 2012

Steve Jobs called The Whole Earth Catalog "one of the bibles of my generation". He went on to explain in his Stanford commencement speech in 2005, "It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions". The Whole Earth Catalog was a kind of "unofficial handbook of the counterculture". It was, pre-Internet, a way for anyone anywhere to tap into a global economy. Founder and editor Stewart Brand set out to create a catalog- like the then-very-practical-and-universal catalog LL Bean- that would showcase all of the great tools of the world to help anyone do things for themselves or learn about big ideas. Lloyd Kahn was the Shelter editor of the catalog. Kahn, an insurance broker-turned-builder, leveraged his experience with Whole Earth and began to publish his own books. First, he wrote very popular books on dome building. Kahn had become "the spokesman for the counterculture on domes" (his dome home even appeared in Life Magazine), but he took the books out of print when he decided the building style just wasn't practical and "I didn't want any more domes on my kharma". In 1974 Kahn took down his dome and replaced it with a more traditional handmade home. "Built stud-frame house using recycled lumber, doors, windows," he writes in his 2004 book Home Work, "Relief somehow to discover old ways can work best." Today, Lloyd and his wife Lesley Creed run their own homestead in Bolinas ...

http://wn.com/Steve_Job's_Google_of_the_60s_Whole_Earth_Catalog_revisited_+_homestead_tour_of_a_former_editor

Fibonacci tiny house reflects nature's golden ratio

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Duration: 3:25
Updated: 30 Oct 2012

Author Richard Heinberg once taught a course on sacred geometry, and he's written nearly a dozen books related to society's balance with the natural world so when he and his wife built a tiny cottage in their backyard they embedded the Fibonacci series in the windows as a nod to the importance of the golden mean on nature's patterns. Richard Heinberg has written 10 books on energy issues, most notably oil depletion, and the backyard of his modest home in Santa Rosa, California reflects his belief that we need to go back to basics: he has a large veggie garden, chickens and a tiny cottage. The wee house is an experiment in natural building and a nod to the tiny house movement. The windows in the structure reflect the Fibonacci series because "there's a harmony in nature and we wanted to symbolically represent that in the design of our little house". The home is slightly less than 120 square feet which means it's a "building of no consequence" so the Heinbergs didn't have to get a permit from the city or country to build it. More info on original story: faircompanies.com

http://wn.com/Fibonacci_tiny_house_reflects_nature's_golden_ratio

Space saving furniture that transforms 1 room into 2 or 3

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Duration: 8:03
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

Resource Furniture sells bookshelves, couches and desks- and a combination of the above- that are so highly engineered that they gracefully transform into beds. Gone is the amusing awkwardness of Murphy Beds, this more modern transforming furniture (much of it designed and made in Italy y Clei) is high style and almost, well, magical. Hydraulics make the transition from bookshelf or couch to bed a smooth and effortless thing to marvel. More info on original story: faircompanies.com

http://wn.com/Space_saving_furniture_that_transforms_1_room_into_2_or_3

Tiny matchbox apartment hides closet & bathtub in drawers

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Duration: 7:37
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

Micro-apartments are common in historically dense cities like Paris and Barcelona, but architect Valentina Maini wasn't interested in typical small space solutions like lofted sleeping quarters or murphy beds. She wanted her 25 square meter home (269 square feet) to look a bit more conventional, but to stack functions. She hired a carpenter to create a dining table that slides over a matching bench to create more room for guests (she's had 20 over for wine and cheese). She didn't stop there. The bench also slides to reveal a full-sized bathtub: her micro-spa. Valentina filled her need for leg-less chairs using traditional zen tatami chairs that can be placed above her bathtub/bench for eating or reading or removed for bath hour (or used to create a viewing lounge outside her balcony window). Not interested in the daily work involved in a transforming bed, Valentina simply raised her mattress a few extra feet and set to work creating a closet below. Recycling three large cabinets from her former work place (her tiny pad is now also her home office), she created sliding drawers for clothing that tuck within sliding drawers for the cabinets that all tuck neatly beneath her sleeping quarters (though if she'd had 20 centimeters more in height she would have created a hanging closet within the cabinets). More in original story: faircompanies.com Valentina Maini: www.valentinamaini.net

http://wn.com/Tiny_matchbox_apartment_hides_closet_bathtub_in_drawers

96-square-foot tiny home handbuilt inside century-old sheep barn

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Duration: 2:29
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

When Loren Amelang bought some land in the California back country in the 1970s, he had intended to use as a weekend place, but a decade later- tired of the corporate world- he left his Silicon Valley job (he's a pioneer in C++ programming) and moved onto the property full-time. The only real shelter on the property was an old sheep barn, leftover from when the property was homesteaded a century ago. So he decided to build a small shack inside the structure as a home. Inside his 96-square-foot shelter, it was tiny, but very comfortable. A small cast iron stove heated the place in a very short time with very little firewood (chopped tiny to fit the appliance, of course). All of his possessions- books, dishes, condiments, and electronics- were within arms reach. More info in original story: faircompanies.com

http://wn.com/96-square-foot_tiny_home_handbuilt_inside_century-old_sheep_barn

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Tiny homes as punk rock: freedom from codes & loans

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Duration: 12:29
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

Derek "Deek" Diedricksen's backyard is filled with what to the untrained eye might appear children's forts, but these tiny dwellings are actually how he makes his living (mostly). Ask him his job title and he'll reply, "I call myself a tinkerer or I've come up with bizarre-chitect or lark-chitect being kind of a fake architect." Diedricksen's obsession with tiny architecture began unsurprisingly, with the backyard forts of his youth. But he wasn't your average construction-minded kid. At age ten he built his first cabin, complete with electricity, insulation, heat and a platform bunk. When he was 14 he read Lester Walker's book Tiny Houses and discovered there were others out there like him. By the time he stumbled upon the Small House Movement a decade or two later, he had already built dozens of tiny structures. Today, his backyard is filled with tiny cabins, forts, retreats, shelters, shacks and no two are alike. Most of his dwellings are multi-purpose: there's the 20-square-foot travel trailer/emergency homeless shelter (Gottagiddaway), the roughly 6 square foot treehouse/chicken coop (the Wedgie) and the 11-square-foot kiosk/single-sleeper (the Gypsy Junker). He builds small and he works with a micro-budget. His Gottagiddaway AKA "$100 homeless hut" was built for about that (or perhaps as high as $110). His 32-square-foot micro-office (where he filmed his interview) was built for $80 from barn sale/ barn demo materials. His materials are salvaged from old buildings ...

http://wn.com/Tiny_homes_as_punk_rock_freedom_from_codes_loans

We The Tiny House People (Documentary): Small Homes, Tiny Flats & Wee Shelters

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Duration: 81:47
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

TV producer and Internet-video personality Kirsten Dirksen invites us on her journey into the tiny homes of people searching for simplicity, self-sufficiency, minimalism and happiness by creating shelter in caves, converted garages, trailers, tool sheds, river boats and former pigeon coops....

http://wn.com/We_The_Tiny_House_People_Documentary_Small_Homes,_Tiny_Flats_Wee_Shelters

Lego-style apartment transforms into infinite spaces

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Duration: 9:38
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

When Christian Schallert isn't cooking, dressing, sleeping or eating, his 24 square meter (258 square feet) apartment looks like an empty cube. To use a piece of furniture, he has to build it. Located in Barcelona's hip Born district, the tiny apartment is a remodeled pigeon loft. Christian says its design was inspired by the space-saving furniture aboard boats, as well as the clean lines of a small Japanese home. Spanish-version tour with architect Barbara Appolloni: faircompanies.com Barbara Appolloni's Christian House: www.barbaraappolloni.com Original story here: faircompanies.com

http://wn.com/Lego-style_apartment_transforms_into_infinite_spaces

Tiny open house: one of the world's smallest homes for sale

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Duration: 8:08
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

Jay Shafer of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company holds an open house for his newest creation- the 120-square-foot Craftsman style box bungalow. It's a slight step up from the 96-square-foot he just sold, but this one has modular elements so buyers can put the kitchen and bathroom wherever they choose. More info in original story: faircompanies.com

http://wn.com/Tiny_open_house_one_of_the_world's_smallest_homes_for_sale

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Medieval Spanish ghost town becomes self-sufficient ecovillage

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Duration: 13:01
Updated: 27 Oct 2012

It's a utopian fantasy- discover a ghost town and rebuild it in line with your ideals-, but in Spain where there are nearly 3000 abandoned villages (most dating back to the Middle Ages), some big dreamers have spent the past 3 decades doing just that. There are now a few dozen "ecoaldeas" - ecovillages - in Spain, most build from the ashes of former Medieval towns. One of the first towns to be rediscovered was a tiny hamlet in the mountains of northern Navarra. Lakabe was rediscovered in 1980 by a group of people living nearby who had lost their goats and "when they found their goats, they found Lakabe", explains Mauge Cañada, one of the early pioneers in the repopulation of the town. The new inhabitants were all urbanites with no knowledge of country life so no one expected them to stay long. When they first began to rebuild, there was no road up to the town so horses were used to carry construction materials up the mountain. There was no electricity either so they lived with candles and oil lamps. In the early years, they generated income by selling some of their harvest and working odd jobs like using their newfound construction experience to rebuild roofs outside town. Later they rebuilt the village bakery and sold bread to the outside world. Their organic sourdough breads now sell so well that today they can get by without looking for work outside town, but it helps that they keep their costs at a minimum as a way of life. "There's an austerity that's part of the ...

http://wn.com/Medieval_Spanish_ghost_town_becomes_self-sufficient_ecovillage

Tiny, portable, prefab cube shelters in medieval French town

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Duration: 4:31
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

They're just 3 meters (9.8 feet) by 3 meters and just about as high. They'd make great tiny homes, but these portable cube prefabs- they can be moved on a flatbed (in 2 parts) and dropped anywhere with a forklift- are being used across France as rural hotels. Carré d'étoiles translates to "box of stars" and this vacation prefab was designed for stargazing, with a large domed skylight just feet above the lofted bed. It's less than 100 square feet, but it sleeps four (platform and sofa beds) and includes a kitchen with stove, sink and refridgerator, sitting area, a bathroom, a shower, plus storage and shelving. They're not cheap, but the 30900 euro (~$40000) price tag, includes all transport to the site and marketing (since it's assumed they'll be used as vacation rentals). In this video, Caroline of the Carrés d'étoiles de la Paleine, France shows us the three cubes she has installed on the premises of her home/chateau/hotel in the medieval village of Puy-Notre-Dame (in the Loire-Anjou-Touraine regional park). Original story here: www.faircompanies.com

http://wn.com/Tiny,_portable,_prefab_cube_shelters_in_medieval_French_town

Airline exec builds observation tower treehouse as tiny home

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Duration: 9:56
Updated: 23 Oct 2012

Fred Reid has reached the top of his industry- he's been president of Delta Airlines, CEO of Virgin America, president and CEO of Lufthansa and today he's president of Flexjet-, but often when he's not working he escapes to his secret place: a tiny house on stilts. His hermitage is a small cabin three stories above the ground. It's not exactly a treehouse since it's not attached to any tree, but it's tucked so tightly between the redwoods it appears a part of the grove. To design the elevated home- permitted as an observation tower- he called upon Scott Constable of Wowhaus who crafted a refuge with only the "luxury of the essential". The House of Tree- as Reid has dubbed it- doesn't have plumbing or electricity, instead he relies on kerosene, bottled water and a camping stove. "Though not technically a 'tree house' because it makes no connection to any tree, the elevated cabin," explains Constable on his Deep Craft blog, "has all of the hallmarks of one: 360 degree views through the trees, rustic accommodations, no utilities, and a feeling of being apart from everything but closer to nature." In this video we visit Reid's West Sonoma "spiritual sanctuary" where Constable takes us for a tour inside the second growth redwood grove and up above in the roughly 200 square foot rustic, crafted home. More info on original story: faircompanies.com

http://wn.com/Airline_exec_builds_observation_tower_treehouse_as_tiny_home

Non-possession: seeking intense simplicity and the good life

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Duration: 13:47
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

Peter Lawrence has few possessions. He can fit nearly everything he owns in a suitcase. Lawrence is a self-described minimalist. After years of living simply while working as a manager for Hewlett Packard- saving much more than he spent-, he was able to retire soon after turning 40 and he now spends much of his time working on the internal stuff. After a friend urged him to tell the story of "his unique lifestyle", he wrote and self-published a book called "The Happy Minimalist". Lawrence makes tries to make clear- not just with the book's title- that for him, minimalism isn't about deprivation or sacrifice, but a way of finding fulfillment. More information in original video: faircompanies.com [Filming credit: Sushil Nedyavila and Peter Lawrence]

http://wn.com/Non-possession_seeking_intense_simplicity_and_the_good_life

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Internet of food: Arduino-based, urban aquaponics in Oakland

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Duration: 13:37
Updated: 30 Oct 2012

The land in West Oakland where Eric Maundu is trying to farm is covered with freeways, roads, light rail and parking lots so there's not much arable land and the soil is contaminated. So Maundu doesn't use soil. Instead he's growing plants using fish and circulating water. It's called aquaponics- a gardening system that combines hydroponics (water-based planting) and aquaculture (fish farming). It's been hailed as the future of farming: it uses less water (up to 90% less than traditional gardening), doesn't attract soil-based bugs and produces two types of produce (both plants and fish). Aquaponics has become popular in recent years among urban gardeners and DIY tinkerers, but Maundu- who is trained in industrial robotics- has taken the agricultural craft one step further and made his gardens smart. Using sensors (to detect water level, pH and temperature), microprocessors (mostly the open-source Arduino microcontroller), relay cards, clouds and social media networks (Twitter and Facebook), Maundu has programmed his gardens to tweet when there's a problem (eg not enough water) or when there's news (eg an over-abundance of food to share). Maundu himself ran from agriculture in his native Kenya- where he saw it as a struggle for land, water and resources. This changed when he realized he could farm without soil and with little water via aquaponics and that he could apply his robotics background to farming. Today he runs Kijani Grows ("Kijani" is Swahili for green), a small ...

http://wn.com/Internet_of_food_Arduino-based,_urban_aquaponics_in_Oakland

DIY treehouse inventor creates Ewok world in rural Oregon

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Duration: 16:54
Updated: 28 Oct 2012

In 1974, fresh out of the army, Michael Garnier went to rural Oregon to try to make a living off the woods. He tried making furniture, fences, pole barns and selling organic, psychedelic picture propellers (to see Fantasy Flakes), but finally it was a treehouse that got him all the attention. Modeled after the treehouse he had once built for his kids, his first treehouse B&B; was completed in 1990. Today he has 9 treehouses for rent, 20 staircases, 5 or 6 bridges, several platforms and zip lines for rapid descent and at least one fireman's pole. Some of his treehouses even have toilets, running water and showers, though he warns guests to "stand when they flush". Over the years, Garnier has become legend in his industry and helped invent a better way to build a treehouse. Instead of bolting wood to wood (ie beams to the tree), Garnier and his colleagues at the World Treehouse Conference (an event he used to host) developed a way to attach steel bolts and cuffs to the tree. Dubbed the Garnier Limb (or GL), this open source design can support 8000 pounds. Garnier sells GLs of all different types as well as plans to build your own treehouse. His DIY treehouses are for 12 foot trees ($150) and he sells about 30 or 40 plans per year. Original story: www.faircompanies.com

http://wn.com/DIY_treehouse_inventor_creates_Ewok_world_in_rural_Oregon

Airstream-inspired apartments as affordable tiny homes

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Duration: 7:51
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

Patrick Kennedy is a housing developer who likes to build small. His vision is to build the housing equivalent of the Smart Car. His SmartSpaces will be small, just a couple hundred square feet. To create a smarter space, Kennedy constructed a 160-square-foot test home (the smallest legal-sized apartment for California) inside a Berkeley wherehouse. SmartSpace 1.0 is filled with innovations like the SmartBench, an adjustable banquette that converts from a dining table to a guest bed. Kennedy gives us an exclusive tour of the tiny SmartSpace 1.0 studio, as well as of his 78-square-foot Airstream travel trailer parked outside (his vacations onboard with wife and child inspired his latest development).

http://wn.com/Airstream-inspired_apartments_as_affordable_tiny_homes

Zen meets tiny homes: movable "paper" walls transform spaces

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Duration: 9:35
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

Rui Miguel and Sonia Lopez both work in confined office buildings so they wanted a home with plenty of outdoor space and natural light. They settled on a 40 square meter (430 square foot) apartment with few windows, but a roof space, a small deck and potential. Enter Miguel Angel of Miel Architects who convinced the couple to cut a hole in their roof to create an indoor/outdoor shower as the centerpiece of the apartment. From above the hole appears to be a simple planter on their roof deck with the ivy plants disguising the depth of the descent (though the wood of the planter is the same wood of the shower). From inside, the hole turns an otherwise windowless bathroom into a magical place. During a storm, Sonia and Rui now shower in the rain. During summer, the air is cooling and in winter, even with the glass closed, the sunlight and plants create a tropical feel. Inspired by Japanese homes, the architects not only made the bathroom the center of the living space, but he copied the concept of Shoji "paper" panels (they're often created using rice paper on a wood frame) as a way of dividing the home. Rather than traditional translucent panels created from rice paper over wood frames, the doors in the home are solid, but like their inspiration they move in multiple directions, allowing for softer closings of one large space. More info on original story: faircompanies.com Miel Architects: www.mielarquitectos.com

http://wn.com/Zen_meets_tiny_homes_movable_paper_walls_transform_spaces

Food not lawns: growing your own yard

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Duration: 4:03
Updated: 23 Oct 2012

Food Not Lawns founder Heather Flores takes us for a tour of some guerrilla gardens and de-lawned sites in Eugene, Oregon. Original story here: faircompanies.com

http://wn.com/Food_not_lawns_growing_your_own_yard

ThinBike: full-sized foldable bike folds flat in small space

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Duration: 2:34
Updated: 28 Oct 2012

Instead of a traditional folding bike, designer/entrepreneur Graham Hill (also founder of treehugger.com) wanted something simpler and cleaner. Beginning with a high performing (ie light) full-sized urban bike, Hill worked with cycling manufacturer Schindelhauer to create the ThinBike: a bicycle that is fast on city streets, but tucks neatly out of the way in his small apartment. Instead of looking for a new way to swivel, hinge or fold a bike into a more compact package, Hill and the Schindelhauer designers focused on flattening the bike, but leaving it vertically full-sized. They added a Speedlifter Twist to the handlebars to allow them to spin 90 degrees, eliminating the extra width on the top of the bike. Down below, they replaced the pedals with MKS folding pedals. The result: a bicycle that snaps and clicks flat within 5 seconds for passing through subway turnstyles, walking down city sidewalks or climbing the stairs of Hill's 6 floor walkup. To create a bike clean enough for apartment living (and commuting), the designers swapped a chain for an oil-free Gates Carbon Drive belt. More info on original story: faircompanies.com Graham's LifeEdited project: lifeedited.com ThinBike to be produced by: www.schindelhauerbikes.com

http://wn.com/ThinBike_full-sized_foldable_bike_folds_flat_in_small_space

Berkeley's backyard tiny house adds income & affordable housing

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Duration: 8:14
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

Karen Chapple is a city planning professor so she knows all about the benefits of backyard cottages as urban infill and for adding density to sprawling neighborhoods, but when she took out a loan to build her own "accessory dwelling unit" (AKA secondary dwelling unit, granny flat, in-law unit), she did it for what she calls selfish reasons. The place is small- the footprint is just 250 square feet (the 450 square feet total includes the sleeping loft and porch)-, but her first tenants were a family with a 2-year-old son. Both Karen Kerr and her partner are firefighters which means their salaries don't go far in the high rent communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. So downsizing to a tiny home just made sense. More info on original story: faircompanies.com

http://wn.com/Berkeley's_backyard_tiny_house_adds_income_affordable_housing

Teen tiny house builder Austin Hay finishes dorm on wheels

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Duration: 14:34
Updated: 30 Oct 2012

We first visited Austin Hay after he had just finished his sophomore year of and had built just the shell of his tiny home on wheels (based on plans donated by Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company). Now, Austin is in his senior year of high school and he has finally completed his home, including a full kitchen, DIY sofa-bed, nearly full-sized shower and composting toilet (doorknobs and solar to come). We stopped in at his open house where his house was packed with a dozen friends (at any one time). His mother weighs in on the future of tiny houses (his high school and other local schools have asked for Austin's guidance in building their own versions), his girlfriend answered our questions about living in something tiny one day and his grandfather playing Santa Claus to help Austin finish his tiny dorm on wheels. More info on original story: faircompanies.com * Austin's open house was filmed by Johnny Sanphillippo (from our video "Mortgage-free tiny home on a housekeeper's salary") and John and Emily Dirksen (my parents who happen to live nearby).

http://wn.com/Teen_tiny_house_builder_Austin_Hay_finishes_dorm_on_wheels

Crafting a folding moped & an EV motorcycle that can't fall (thanks to gyroscopic stability)

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Duration: 9:57
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

Danny Kim has started his own car company, though, except for the old Land Rover he converted to run on biodiesel, his "cars" all have two wheels. He's patented a couple of electric cargo scooters, one of which folds up entirely to fit in elevators, pickup trucks... your apartment. The vehicle that could put Lit Motors on the map is his C1. Part motorcycle, part car, he calls it a cyclecar. It's two-wheeled and tilts and leans like a motorycle, but it's fully enclosed and steers like a car. And best of all, thanks to gyroscopes, it doesn't fall down. The Lit Motors design house in San Franciso's SOMA is layered with his designs. Kim takes us for a tour of the old warehouse where he parks his biodiesel Land Rover, his patented EV cargo scooters and his cyclecar prototype-in-progress. Original story: faircompanies.com Music credit: Music credit: "Danse Macabre - No Violin" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

http://wn.com/Crafting_a_folding_moped_an_EV_motorcycle_that_can't_fall_thanks_to_gyroscopic_stability

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Off-grid float cabin: retirement tiny dream home in BC wilderness

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Duration: 12:55
Updated: 29 Oct 2012

Margy and Wayne Lutz were camping in Coastal British Columbia when they discovered their dream home: the float cabins of Powell Lake. They're not houseboats, but "float cabins", that is, they're permanently anchored to shore. Float cabins were first built on Powell Lake as inexpensive and portable homes for loggers and fishermen. Since then they've become regulated and the 200 float cabin owners here these days lease their water lots from the BC government for $500 per year. The Lutz's bought their retirement home in 2001 for 35000 Canadian dollars (about $25000 USD, at the time), what they considered worth the risk if their experiment in off-grid living didn't workout. A few years later they retired early from their school district jobs in Los Angeles, anxious to start living their dream, and moved into their small (420 square feet, plus a 200-square-foot sleeping loft) floating home. At the time it didn't have indoor plumbing so they hiked 4 flights of stairs up the granite cliff to an outhouse (they've since installed a composting toilet indoors). Today, the Lutzs live completely off-the-grid. There's no water heater (they boil it on the wood stove as a luxury) and no plumbing. They hand-pump water from the lake (for washing dishes, they remove most food first and use only biodegradable soap and the water is returned to the lake). There's no trash pickup. They compost nearly everything. For their energy uses, the Lutzs rely on solar, wind, and thermoelectric power. For ...

http://wn.com/Off-grid_float_cabin_retirement_tiny_dream_home_in_BC_wilderness

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