Home Construction

There is always a new idea behind a tiny house we come across. Some thrive on the use of material, some on the number of people it can accommodate. However, designing to create spaciousness within a compact timber project is what really gets me intrigued. This is why the Sunshine tiny house designed and sold by Sweden-based Vagabond Haven is the subject of discussion. The ready-to-move-in tiny house on wheels is finished in a choice of Spruce, ThermoWood, Shou sugi ban or cedar siding. Made compact and lightweight to be pulled behind a car, the tiny house can even be finished precisely according to how you want it. Designer: Vagabond Haven  As important as it is for a tiny house to be accommodating on the inside, it is vital to be prepared for year-round living. This is the ethos of the Sunshine which measures 6.7m long and 2.55m wide. The little but spacious tiny house offers 21sqm of living space along with a loft bedroom, functional kitchen, bathroom...

The economics of the housing market, and the local rules that shape it, have squeezed out entry-level homes. The American starter home has been a bungalow, a shotgun house, a rowhome. Library of Congress Emily Badger likes talking to home builders about economics and to historians about architecture. She's done that at The Times since 2016. As recently as the 1990s, when Jason Nageli started off, the home-building industry was still constructing what real-estate ads would brightly call the "starter home." In the Denver area, he sold newly built two-story houses with three bedrooms in 1,400 square feet or less. The price: $99,000 to $125,000, or around $200,000 in today's dollars. That house would be in tremendous demand today. But few builders construct anything like it anymore. And you couldn't buy those Denver area homes built 25 years ago at an entry-level price today, either. They go for half a million dollars. The disappearance of such affordable homes is cen...