Our team at Gaines Group Architects was honored to be named one of the “Best Tiny Home Architects in the US” and the only firm named in Virginia and West Virginia.
Home Builder Digest blog named 35 firms in their recent list of The Best Tiny House Architects in the US. The tiny house movement or small house movement is a social change in our country where people want to live simply and shed their stuff. The most recent definition of a tiny house that I could find is a maximum of 400 sf excluding lofts. So our small house mentioned in the article is actually large at 448 sf.
Built by Beck Builders, this house was an experiment for our client to see how economical we could create detached housing in the City of Harrisonburg. Our client wanted to help solve the affordable housing issue that we are facing and this project shows us a solution. Smaller footprint homes along with more density, smaller lots, a variation of project types, land trust, and new zoning solutions will all have to come together to solve our local affordable housing challenges.
While the national trend is for larger houses, we are seeing renewed interest in more intentional design that is smaller and more affordable. I hope this trend continues as we need more diversity of house types in the area and I love working on these smaller footprint homes! Here is one I designed with hopes of seeing it built in the future – maybe a cottage/office for a future backyard infill project?
Charles, No, I’m not an architect, but I’ve always been interested in floorplans, layouts, flow, etc……I used to build little houses (open from the top) with my brother’s Legos and create “stables” for my stick horse with a rake and fallen leaves. Years ago, I created a file folder labeled “House plan ideas” and saved random images there over the years. I have a long-dormant dream of one day building a small but perfectly suited home for myself-someday. Not any day soon, mind you. I really like the aesthetic of the rendering in this piece and I’d love to see how you’ve imagined an inside layout to be? Would you share?
Sure, send me your contact information.