Designing for Compact Living Spaces
An Exploration Tool for the Ultimate Tiny House Experience
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Abstract
In recent years, the popularity of compact living spaces like Tiny Houses is rising in the Netherlands. With Tiny Houses still gaining in popularity, there is a demand for information and knowledge about this new form of living. Through multiple sources, interested people are learning about tiny living and how to realize living in a Tiny House. However, these sources only cover the 'what' and 'how' about a Tiny House and forget about the most important 'why' part: why does a Tiny House fit you and which aspects of living in a Tiny House are important to you?
This project focuses on this 'why-gap' by designing an exploration tool that helps people to find their ultimate Tiny House experience and this way create a strong base for designing their own Tiny House.
To gain knowledge about the context, target group, and existing Tiny Houses, multiple types of research are conducted. In a contextual research, Tiny House residents are asked to share their experiences to find out which different values can be distinguished per resident. In the user research, the target groups are defined to see how the tool could contribute to each of the different groups. The reference analysis is used to map out the different characteristic elements that determine the design and character of a Tiny House.
From these researches, a design model arose, where the 'why' forms the base of the design, with the user and its values central. The 'how' builds on to this base, where the choices of the user as the determinants are central. Finally, these two layers serve as the foundation for the design of the Tiny House.
The final design: Tiny Roots is a toolkit that can be used in a series of sessions, for users to explore their ultimate Tiny House experience by answering this 'why' and 'how' first before designing the 'what': the Tiny House itself. It serves as the roots for designing a Tiny House that meets all values and wishes, matches the personality of the resident and this way create the ultimate Tiny House experience.