Students will develop a working understanding of the spatial limitations of a tiny house.
Materials: measuring tape, masking or other marking tape, furniture or other items for constructing make-shift “walls”, spare rooms/closets/workrooms for measuring
Sources: LA Times article, average home size article
1. Individual exercise/warm-up/discussion
The LA Times reports that “the average US household contains 300,000 items, from paper clips to ironing boards.” The average US home is estimated to be 2,600 square feet (s.f.), in Georgia the average home size is about 2,000 s.f. Estimate how many items per s.f exist in these homes. Now use one of those estimates and multiply it by the square footage of a tiny home. How many items would the average person need to eliminate from their belongings to move into a tiny home?
2. Group exercise
Start with a class discussion about the size of a tiny home based on their ideas and findings from their research. Because the definition varies perhaps lead them to come up with categories based on size. (e.g.: 100-300 s.f. is “ultra tiny”, 300-600 s.f., etc.) Now begin a brainstorm about common elements that would be in homes: sink, toilet, bed, table, couch, etc. and have students record responses in some format whether it’s a list on the whiteboard or stickies on a poster, digitally via the projector, etc. Now that they have lots of things they can measure send them out to measure!
Have the students start measuring rooms, spaces, and objects around the school so that they can develop a more concrete idea about the sizes they are being asked to design. Perhaps they’re measuring closets, workrooms, classrooms, bathrooms, etc. and recording details about and sketching those spaces. Need to know the size of a toilet? Go and measure one! Or look it up at the library or on the Internet. There are lots of options. How high is a comfortable countertop? How small of a sink do you think you can get away with? Would you want a sink that small? Give students tape and let them mark off an area in the room to represent a tiny house. If it’s okay to move furniture perhaps they might use desks or table to simulate walls around this space to get a better idea it in 3D. Tape off a few walls, furniture, appliances, etc. inside the home and then walk around in it. Give them the freedom to try different things but ask them to explain things to you and their peers as they are working.
Have them take photos and write down observations, measurements and sketches as they work. Internet research on space conscious appliances and furniture might also be appropriate.
3. Homework exercise
Measure and sketch any room in your home. Make a brief inventory of the items in that room. Make a column chart or similar to categorize what things from this room you would absolutely keep or dispose of. Is there a “maybe” list?