Tiny Houses

A History Thesis on the Tiny House Movement

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Abstract

With a shortage of over 300,000 homes, which will be even more in the coming years, the Netherlands has a social problem that needs to be solved (NOS, 2021; Bremmer & ten Teije, 2020). The Netherlands also needs to take more progressive measures in the field of sustainability in order to meet its goals. The relatively young concept of "tiny house" offers solutions for this (Obbink, 2020; Shearer & Burton, 2019; The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, 2013). However, because it does not yet have global recognition and the tiny house movement is still very young, there is a need to first understand what a tiny house entails, where this movement comes from, and what the reasons are for people to switch to this lifestyle. With the answers to these questions, a more concrete look at the Netherlands will be undertaken. Literature research will be conducted and existing research based on surveys with tiny house enthusiasts will be used to provide answers to the above. This thesis contributes to the interdisciplinary literature on this topic. With the outcome that tiny houses can offer solutions to the housing shortage in the Netherlands and in the field of environmental sustainability, it is recommended to conduct deeper research in the future to get an even better grasp on what ways tiny houses can contribute to this.