Building Small: Sustainable Designs for Tiny Houses & Backyard Buildings

by David Stiles, Jeanie Stiles

Live large by building small!

Do you daydream about downsizing your living space? Or perhaps you long for a more eco-friendly and sustainable way of life. The tiny house movement continues to gain popularity as more and more people look to simplify their lives and reconnect with nature.

Building Small is your key to joining the tiny house revolution with designs for homes as well as a range of backyard buildings including workspaces and sheds. There's tons of practical how-to construction advice including best practices, common pitfalls and tips for the do-it-yourself carpenter. Within these pages you'll find:


   • Complete plans for seven tiny houses
   • Strategies for outfitting your tiny house with lighting, water, heating and waste removal
   • Ideas for floor layout and interior design
   • Success stories and inspirational photos of tiny homes
Whether you're considering a timber-framed cottage or a modular cube-style home, Building Small offers a wide range of approaches for planning and building your small structure.

Genres: Nonfiction, Architecture

208 pages, Paperback

Published July 24, 2017

Reviews

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting read, it reminds me of the old Popular Mechanics house plans that used to appear back 40-50 years ago. About half the book consists of the authors' designs and somewhat sketchy construction advice (it's a thin book!) while the other half are small homes, mostly not trailers, by other people. A short bibliography and resource guide round off the book. There are better designs out there and you would need a real construction manual to build these houses. A nice but not earth shattering book on the subject.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The designs are decent, the building plans are decent and well documented, but the photos are awful.

[Richard Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really handy guide with great diagrams to start working on your own tiny house.

This book seems to be primarily written for the American market as all electrical and plumbing regulations are based of building in the US

Some parts of the book are hard to follow due to odd layout choices but is none the less a good starting point for those wanting to live off grid

[Cyndi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grabbed this book one day when I was in a hurry at the library. From the cover I expected it to be photos of small houses, but it's really plans and sketches for building. I'm not sure if the information contained in this book would be enough for a novice though...

[Caroline Rowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is perfect for people who are ready to start their first tiny house build as it contains detailed step by step instructions and materials lists for building a variety of tiny buildings.