This document provides an overview of the Tiny House movement and its roots in the late 19th century English Arts and Crafts movement. It discusses key figures like Jay Shafer who helped launch the modern Tiny House movement and advocates like William Morris who promoted simplicity and craftsmanship in the 1800s. It also profiles some influential personalities in the Tiny House movement and how they have helped spread ideas about tiny living through blogs, books, and workshops.
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1. THE TINY HOUSE MOVEMENT: A 21ST CENTURY REVOLUTION WITH ROOTS
IN THE ENGLISH ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT
CYNTHIA COULOUTHROS
HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE, INTERIORS, AND DECORATIVE ARTS 2
INSTRUCTOR: SANDRA POZA
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: BERKELEY EXTENSION: SAN FRANCISCO
APRIL 5, 2015
Cynthia Coulouthros
cyn@cynworks.com
925-413-0044
2. Coulouthros p. 2
THE TINY HOUSE MOVEMENT: A 21ST CENTURY REVOLUTION WITH ROOTS
IN THE ENGLISH ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT
âThe greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain
way . . . To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion in one.â
John Ruskin, Modern Painters, 1846
In 1964, Kenneth Clark wrote concerning John Ruskinâs influence on future generations, âThe first flash of
insight which persuades human beings to change their basic assumptions is usually contained in a few
phrases.â1 Ruskin wrote many phrases that changed peopleâs assumptions. He wrote ardently on the
topics of simplicity in art, design, and life from 1843-1860. It is this same zealous advocacy of simplicity
that links the late 1800s English Arts and Crafts movement to todayâs Tiny House movement.
William Morris, the leader of the English Arts and Crafts movement said, âIt was through him [Ruskin] that I
learned to give form to my discontent.â2 Under Morrisâ leadership, the Arts and Crafts movement rebelled
against the Industrial Revolution and presented a unified approach to craftsmanship that transcended
the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, and design. Jay Shafer, the leader of todayâs Tiny House
movement, uses his vision of aggressively efficient simplicity to ignite a countercultural revolution
encompassing architecture, commerce, and urban development.
TINY HOUSE MOVEMENT ROOTS
Jay Shafer, who put pencil to graph paper in the late 1990s
and inadvertently launched the Tiny House movement, says
his original design goals were efficiency and control. His
house designs were less about beauty and more about
rebellion. Michael Janzen, author of The Tiny House Design
Blog says Shafer "thumbed his nose at the rules... and made a
solution (to housing) that's compelling and technically illegal,
which appeals to a lot of people."3
3. Coulouthros p. 3
Currently in his late 40s, Shafer is built to be a media darling. He is focused, fierce, magnetic, and has the
desire to leap off of tiny buildings. He enjoys having an audience at his electronic fingertips and uses his
skills at drawing on peopleâs passions to provoke action. Self-acknowledged as âhigh on the Aspergerâs
scaleâ 4(The Gilliam Asperger's disorder scale), he often comes across as angry enough to make things
happen but not perturbable enough to let obstacles get under his skin.
He earned his masters degree in art from City College of New York in 1992. When he finished school, he
moved back to Iowa City, IA, bouncing from project to project. In his free time, he drew tiny, imaginary
houses. Drawing upon the architecture of subtraction, he eliminated superfluous space. His philosophy
was streamlined: "if there's elbow room for the activities you need, it's good, but anything beyond that is
not good."5
To his surprise, his Tiny House drawing was awarded âMost Innovative Designâ in Natural Home Magazineâs
1999 House of the Year contest. It was less than 130 square feet. Then he learned that his award-winning
house would be illegal to construct. The size -- or lack thereof -- violated the 1999 International Residential
Building Code that specified the smallest home could not be less than 260 square feet and must contain
at least one room of 120 square feet.
Shafer said, "Once I found out it was illegal to live in a small house, I had to do it." From his experience of
living in an Airstream after college, he came
to the solution of a house on wheels. He had
a point to prove. He said, "It couldn't be a
trailer. It had to be very houselike. I wanted
a home I could control...where everything
was useful and meant something.â And,
because of the wheelbase design, it would
not technically be a house but instead
qualify as a trailer load. No âhouse,â no housing code. 6
Energized by the idea he could make a living designing homes on wheels, Shafer launched the
Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. For 10 years, he encouraged Tiny Housers to build the houses they
wanted, live where they could, break the law, and ignore zoning rules.
4. Coulouthros p. 4
Then, like his Arts and Crafts predecessor William Morris, he got political. Morris developed guilds and
societies for craftsmen. In his 50s, he joined the Democratic Federation and spoke hundreds of times to
support socialism in England.7 Shafer used his acerbic writing skills to proclaim his discontent.
Shafer took pleasure in getting fired up. In his 2009 book The Small House Book, he wrote: âWe are living
in a system that, if left to its own devices, would have us in debt up to our eyeballs and still clamoring to
purchase more things than we could use in a thousand lifetimes. Simplification requires that we
consciously resist this system and replace it with a more viable one of our own making. For some of us, it
requires that we either break laws or expend the time and money required to change those laws that
currently prohibit an uncomplicated life.â8
On February 24, 2010, Ryan Mitchell, the man behind The Tiny Life blog, posted an email from Shafer who
was preparing to give a five-minute slide presentation at Ignite Sebastopol 3, part of Global Ignite Week.
Shafer wrote: âI will be using my time to rip Americaâs system of imposed excess a new body part. My
disdain for the building codes that restrict how small a house can be is no secret⊠Iâll be making my
position more clear.â Later in the same email he writes: âI will, of course, be using our website to keep folks
posted about march-ins, sit-ins, stand-offs, and other fun ways to get involved.â9
TINY HOUSE LOGISTICS
The exact definition of a Tiny House is a moving target. The most recent definition (There have been
dozens of similar-but-not-
exactly-the-same definitions
posted online since 2000.) is
from a 2015 survey posted
by Ryan Mitchell of The Tiny
Life blog, written in
cooperation with 16 other Tiny House bloggers. It says: âa Tiny House gives its occupant shelter and
autonomy in less than 350 square feet.â 10
The number of Tiny Houses in the U.S. and Canada is in the thousands, per an unofficial industry survey in
2014. The cost to construct a Tiny House can be as low as $2-3000 for a self-build or averages in the mid-
$40,000s for a custom-built Tiny House. An active resale market is developing, with most Tiny Houses
5. Coulouthros p. 5
priced between $25,000 and $65,000. A 360-square-foot
Tiny House in Santa Cruz, listed at $64,800, on
tinyhouselistings.com in late March 2015 drew 12,953
views in less than a week. 11
TINY HOUSERS: THE OCCUPANTS
The Tiny House movement began as a DIY (do it yourself)
revolution against the excess that crowds and spoils
modern life. As one DIYer put it, âthe Information Age
overwhelms us with anything we can think up and order from anywhere in the world until we become
sick. The DIY Tiny House gives a hands-on life instead of being an onlooker who can only feel alive
through accumulation.â12
Pioneers in the Tiny House movement had an affinity for making things, fixing things, and creating
sustainable environments. Fundamental values included: an affinity for rebellion; a fierce protection of
the liberty free time represents; an attraction to friction; and a willingness to go against society and fight
âthe man.â Many proponents were influenced by the 2008/9 financial crisis or have been through
personal trauma caused by illness, divorce, job insecurity, or diminished retirement resources.
Some Tiny Housers are on the way down, as in
âdownsizing.â This group is selling a larger home and
paring down their belongings. Downsizers consistently
give three reasons for going tiny: (1) to preserve their
retirement nest egg; (2) to have fewer things to take
care of; (3) to have more free time.
Some Tiny Housers are on the way up. They see the
movement as a social and economic movement where
they can build an entrepreneurial niche. These Tiny
Housers are the architects, carpenters, writers, graphic
designers, bloggers, social media evangelists, and
lifestyle specialists.
6. Coulouthros p. 6
SPREADING THE WORD
Anyone who feels compelled to spread his ideas to
the population at large needs a media outlet.
William Morris and Jay Shafer both mastered the
tools of their time. Morris saw Emery Walkerâs talk at
the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society on printing in
1888 and two years later started the Kelmscott
Press, which ran from 1890 until his death in 1896.
His mission was to print books, âwith the hope of
producing some which would have a definite claim to beauty, while at the same time they should be
easy to read and should not dazzle the eye, or trouble the intellect of the reader by eccentricity of form
in the letters.â
The press was an instant success. The Story of the Glittering Plain was published in an edition of 200 in May
1890 and sold out in 3 months. The Kelmscott Press produced 52 works in 66 volumes. It created its own
mini-revolution and was the inspiration behind the private presses of the early 20th century.13
By the time the Tiny House movement arrived at the brink of
the 21st century, the private press had morphed into the
Internet, writhe with passionate advocates for every niche in
society. The Tiny House movement coincided with the self-
publishing blog revolution, accessing peopleâs minds, dreams,
and ambitions 24/7. By the time the Tiny House movement
was seven years old, Time Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year
was "You," meaning, âthe many wresting power from the few
and helping one another for nothing."14 Like seeds planted in
fertile soil, stories of these self-contained Tiny House
homesteads thrived on the web. Every person who felt moved
to evangelize about the movement nabbed a URL and
staked a personal claim in the Tiny House narrative.
7. Coulouthros p. 7
The easy-to-use self-publishing sites like Blogger, WordPress, and Tumblr gave the reader critical
information about the author, the date of publication, and the contentâs validity. Reputations were built
through a mix of useful information, personality-driven writing, and consistent attention to the excitement
and drama of being part of a movement. Dialog between strangers strengthened and deepened the
communityâs knowledge base. The rise of social media like Twitter and Facebook carried the
conversation about the Tiny House movement to the masses. Tiny entrepreneurs learned to use social
media marketing tools, amassing hundreds of thousands of followers.
PERSONALITIES OF THE TINY HOUSE MOVEMENT
While Jay Shafer is the de facto leader of the Tiny House movement, he had help from dozens -- if not
hundreds -- of other Tiny crusaders.
LADY SCIENTIST Elizabeth Turnbell Henry is famed for her
Tiny House in New Haven, CT, built in 2008. She stayed for
three years while she was working as the sustainability
lead for a construction company. She built the house to
represent her core beliefs: that scale is key to
sustainability, that having too much can be as
complicated and uncomfortable as having too little, and
that design matters. She is now Adidasâs senior manager
for energy and environment.15
EMOTIONAL TOUCHSTONE Dee Williams moved into
her Tiny House in 2004 after a medical emergency.
Her memoir is The Big Tiny. Dee co-founded PAD
(Portland Alternative Dwellings).16 She has an honest,
forthright way of expressing what is most valuable in
life, and many people, drawn to her, have stepped
forward to live tiny too. After Jay Shafer, she
appears to be the Tiny House celebrity people most
want to take a selfie with.
8. Coulouthros p. 8
PHILOSOPHER AND GUT CHECK EXPERT Ryan Mitchell of The Tiny Life blog is best described as âthe guy
who is always there.â His personal blog posts run the gamut of talking about taking a sick day in his tiny
house to âhow to survive 20-degree winter weatherâ posts.17 Not evocative stuff. But he is well
connected in the Tiny House community, and he takes on a valuable communication role, sharing news
from other leaders, posting surveys, and giving insights to conferences and workshops. His book, Tiny
House Living: Ideas For Building and Living Well In Less than 400 Square Feet is an Amazon best seller.18 He
also does a fair amount of worrying about the movement itself -- citing barriers and suggesting
development plans -- which puts him on the leadership rung.
BUSINESSMAN AND OPPORTUNIST Kai Rostcheck calls himself a âdigital marketing strategist.â19 He
launched Tiny House Lending after a year of market research convinced his partners and bankers that
the Tiny House movement had enough interested applicants with good-to-great credit scores to be a
worthy business model. He also started the company Tiny House Dating.20
CRAFTSMAN Dan Louche, owner of Tiny Home Builders, started building Tiny Houses in 2009. His first was for
his mom.21 His elegant website is neatly organized into every logistical resource a DIY or partial DIY Tiny
Houser could possibly want. His reputation around the Internet is one of a thorough and thoughtful
gentleman. He sells books and videos, and his workshops
are listed as âsold out.â
CRAFTSMAN Derek "Deek" Diedricksen of Relaxshack.com
describes his interests as âaside from building and designing
tiny houses, treehouses, forts, backyard offices, and cabins,
I'm really into weird art, beer, comic books, anything nerdy,
AND metal and hardcore music.â22 He travels nationally to
lead building workshops and has appeared on HGTV and
DIY Network.
SOCIAL ORGANIZER On April 1, 2015, Chelsea Rustrom
organized a rally for a tiny community to the San Francisco Bay Area23. She calls herself âa sharing
economy practitioner and interdependence consultant,â and is the author of Itâs a Shareable Life.24
9. Coulouthros p. 9
THE HOUSE THAT DIVIDED TIME
To appreciate the architectural impact of the
Tiny House movement, it is valuable to hold the
design of todayâs Tiny Houses up to the model
of the first house celebrated as a study in
simplicity and purpose.
The Red House, in the London suburb of
Bexleyheath, divides architectural time into
everything built before and everything built after. Philip Webb (architect) and William Morris (interior)
completed it in 1860.25 The Red House was designed from the inside out, with much thought given to
how each space would be used. The entry is graced with built-in cupboards closed with hand-hewn iron
handles and hinges. The simple wood floors meet white-washed walls. The stairwell is bathed in light
filtered through handmade stained glass windows. Reflecting on his work, Morris said, âWith the
arrogance of youth, I determined to do no less than to transform the world with Beauty.â26
Like Morris, Shafer lives in a home of his own
design. His 500-square-foot house is home to
four people: Jay, his wife, and their two children.
He says, âI call it the âbunk house.â Iâve never
defined small houses in terms of square footage.
It seems like efficient use of space would be a
more useful way to measure this stuff.â 27
In 2014 Shafer left The Tumbleweed Tiny House
Company because he thought his business
partner was too focused on the bottom line while he was focused on creating a movement and
perfecting his tiny designs.28 Now designing for his new company, Four Lights Tiny House Company, his
2015 vision for the ideal Tiny House is a modular one. Rather than suggest one perfect house to be the
role model for all others, he has created interchangeable shells and parts, referred to on his website as
10. Coulouthros p. 10
building âa la carte.â He again leans on efficiency, noting the architectâs biggest challenge is meeting
the specific needs of a houseâs occupants without including any unwanted extras.29
The shells of these new houses have unobstructed interiors. Their overall interior dimensions, window
placements, and primary components (like bathrooms, stairways and kitchens) have been meticulously
correlated. He has also created design solutions that address foundation issues (legal and technical),
transportation issues for moving tiny homes, more insulation, and raised the ceilings to be 6â6â under all
lofts, a very big deal when living tiny.30 His houses are becoming more elegant, more like Craftsman
bungalows with a generous sense of proportion within a tiny frame.
BARRIERS TO GROWTH
About 10 years into the movement, one of the stumbling blocks to growing the Tiny House culture was the
amount of readily available information about how challenging day-to-day living was in the subculture.
Early DIY Tiny Housers devoted pages and pages of blog posts to the problems of composting toilets,
plumbing for kitchens or showers, solar, electrical, black water recycling, and all of the necessary internal
component systems that turn a shelter into a house. In 2012, Ryan Mitchell of The Tiny Life blog defined
the top five barriers to the Tiny House movement as laws, land, loans, social pressure, and fear. 31
What initially attracted many Tiny Housers to the movement was the outsider status implicit with the
lifestyle. Yet many took up the cry of âblame the manâ when they couldnât find social and government
systems to support their needs. Tiny Housers railed against the economics of building code
recommendations and the greediness of banks. Some people came across as helpless. Some expected
the leaders in movement to solve their problems. Some capitulated under the effort to live tiny in
communities geared to support living medium and large. Tirades were posted on blogs.
Amidst the controversy, another line of thinking that was less emotional and more pragmatic began to
emerge. Some sound advice, such as âstop complaining and do something about itâ became part of
the dialog. Bankers, surveyors, and energy professionals got into the discussion, explaining why societal
structures werenât hostile; they just weren't prepared for the needs and desires of the Tiny House
movement.
11. Coulouthros p. 11
SOLUTIONS FROM AN UNLIKELY SOURCE
A key figure in propelling the Tiny House movement forward,
who â strangely â gets little publicity, is Tom Meyers. He is a self-
described âlibertarian building code regulator.â His blog
Sustainable Building Codes concentrates on his two passions:
building a sustainable home in Colorado and the scientific and
cultural implications of long-term energy consumption in Saudi
Arabia, which is where he worked on assignment in 2014. His
online bio says, âI am actively working to see that innovative housing is not inhibited by excess regulation
and overzealous attempts to dictate âindividual safety.ââ In October 2014, he announced that he had
successfully jumped through the regulatory hoops to eliminate the âburdensome 120 square footâ
requirement from the International Residential Code Section 304.1. He continued to say, âFor those of
you trying to comply with the IRC or otherwise demonstrate the habitability of your Tiny House, the 120sf
requirement will no longer plague you.â32
THE VILLAGE
What happened next is like magma being released
from a volcano. Fix the law, and the rest of the barriers
will fix themselves -- land, loans, social pressure, and,
ostensibly, fear.
In February 2015, Jay Shafer, confirmed to sf.curbed
that his development (under the working title âThe
Napoleon Complexâ) was getting real. 33 His
community leadership, like his design leadership,
showed signs of sophistication and nuance. He confirmed talks with officials in Sebastopol, CA, where
four possible locations, all within a five-minute walk of downtown, were being considered.
Now, in early April 2015, the development has taken on the name âThe Village.â His language on his
website carries a touch a grace and pride with less in-your-face rebellion. He writes that the intent of The
Village is to âcreate a contagious model for responsible, affordable, desirable housing.â He emphasizes
12. Coulouthros p. 12
aesthetics, choosing the word âbeautiful,â echoing
William Morris, when describing the 40-70 Tiny Houses
of The Village. 34
He envisions a community of egalitarian
responsibility. Each house and its land will be
privately owned, and there will be a monthly fee to
maintain the common areas. Residents will have
access to a large common house, private gardens,
shared outdoor space, and pedestrian walkways.
Groundbreaking is expected in 2015.
The Tiny Revolution is winning this battle. Next? Perhaps full on culture war?
14. Coulouthros p. 14
34 Jay Shafer, A Tiny House Village
http://www.fourlightshouses.com/pages/the-napoleon-complex
IMAGES â in order of appearance in text
1. Jay Shafer, The Small House Book
http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2014/05/jay-shafer-small-house-book.jpg.650x0_q85_crop-smart.jpg
2. Tiny Texas Homes
http://www.motherearthnews.com/~/media/Images/MEN/Editorial/Blogs/Natural%20Health/Are%20Americans%
20Craving%20Smaller%20Homes/jay-shafer-home.jpg
3. Tiny Housers Behind the 2015 Tiny House Survey
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/9VLomvSNMZJR9xZXwdg8JNysAYX8wwPPEhfVOT77TF_PT2VtJsLOmV2lund56bB
Td4pd
4. Santa Cruz Tiny House for sale
http://tinyhouselistings.com/tiny-house-26/
5. Tiny House Conference 2015, Portland OR
http://www.tinyhouseconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Portland-THC-poster.png
6. 'The Shepheardes Calender, Conteyning Twelve Aeglogues, Proportionable To The Twelve Monethes' by Edmund
Spenser. Printed by the Kelmscott Press, 1896
http://www.artsandcraftsmuseum.org.uk/Arts_and_Crafts_Movement/Emery_Walker_Library/The_Private_Press_M
ovement/Kelmscott_Press.aspx
7. Time Magazine Cover â Person of the Year 2006
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0f/Time_youcover01.jpg
8. Elizabeth Turnbell Henry, circa 2008
http://img.hipwee.com/cdn/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Dailynews-TinyHouse378.jpg
9. Dee Williams
http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/07/dee-williams-the-big-tiny-537x402.jpg
10. Drawing from Derek âDeekâ Diedricksen â Relaxshack A-Frame
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QmEVRWNcPhI/UvgCSefHcrI/AAAAAAAAJME/-
fv95lHxecQ/s1600/A+frame+plans+6.jpg
11. The Red House
http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/webb/1.jpg
12. Four Lights Tiny House Designs by Jay Shafer
http://www.fourlightshouses.com/pages/tiny-houses
13. Section R 304, Minimum Room Areas
http://sustainablebuildingcodes.blogspot.ca/
14. Drawings for The Village proposal, sketch by Richard Sheppard
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/csp/mediapool
15. Overhead view of The Village
http://cdn.cstatic.net/gridnailer/500x/http:/cdn.cstatic.net/images/gridfs/54f01729f92ea1720b01c51b/NAPOLEo
N%2018.jpg
![Coulouthros p. 2
THE TINY HOUSE MOVEMENT: A 21ST CENTURY REVOLUTION WITH ROOTS
IN THE ENGLISH ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT
âThe greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain
way . . . To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion in one.â
John Ruskin, Modern Painters, 1846
In 1964, Kenneth Clark wrote concerning John Ruskinâs influence on future generations, âThe first flash of
insight which persuades human beings to change their basic assumptions is usually contained in a few
phrases.â1 Ruskin wrote many phrases that changed peopleâs assumptions. He wrote ardently on the
topics of simplicity in art, design, and life from 1843-1860. It is this same zealous advocacy of simplicity
that links the late 1800s English Arts and Crafts movement to todayâs Tiny House movement.
William Morris, the leader of the English Arts and Crafts movement said, âIt was through him [Ruskin] that I
learned to give form to my discontent.â2 Under Morrisâ leadership, the Arts and Crafts movement rebelled
against the Industrial Revolution and presented a unified approach to craftsmanship that transcended
the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, and design. Jay Shafer, the leader of todayâs Tiny House
movement, uses his vision of aggressively efficient simplicity to ignite a countercultural revolution
encompassing architecture, commerce, and urban development.
TINY HOUSE MOVEMENT ROOTS
Jay Shafer, who put pencil to graph paper in the late 1990s
and inadvertently launched the Tiny House movement, says
his original design goals were efficiency and control. His
house designs were less about beauty and more about
rebellion. Michael Janzen, author of The Tiny House Design
Blog says Shafer "thumbed his nose at the rules... and made a
solution (to housing) that's compelling and technically illegal,
which appeals to a lot of people."3](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)