By Courtesy of CAUKIN Studio
The housing crisis is ongoing in the United Kingdom, especially in the vicinity of large cities, where the real estate market is reaching new peaks. This has led some residents to turn to tiny houses as an alternative solution.
The housing crisis is ongoing in the United Kingdom, especially in the vicinity of large cities, where the real estate market is reaching new peaks. This has led some residents to turn to tiny houses as an alternative solution.
Harrison Marshall is one of these tiny house converts. This British artist and architect moved into one of these micro-dwellings in December, after the painful realization that he couldn't afford to rent an apartment or even a single room in central London. He then decided to build his own tiny house, using a dumpster as its foundation. To do this, the artist built a wooden hut with a curved roof, which he attached to the dumpster, called a "skip" in the UK. The month-long project cost him about £4,000 (or approx. $4,800), according to Hyperallergic.
Surprisingly, this tiny house has all the modern comforts you'd expect, but in a very, very small living space of 25 square feet. Harrison Marshall has created a small kitchen and a sleeping area on a mezzanine, inspired by the work of the Skip Gallery public art project. The interior is finished with a thoughtful and stylishly minimalist decor. He has also installed a portable toilet in a corner of the vacant plot he occupies with the agreement of its owner, the British architecture nonprofit, Antepavillion. The young artist reportedly showers at the gym or at the office, according to Hyperallergic.
Speaking to Hyperallergic about his somewhat Spartan lifestyle, the artist explains: "I wanted to hammer home the realities of the rental situation in London by creating something that could be considered better than many of the rooms on offer around London, even though it was in a dumpster." However, the artist sees his tiny house as an act of performance art, rather than a viable solution to the housing crisis in the UK capital.
£30,000 to £100,000
Like Harrison Marshall, many people in the UK are forced to turn to alternative solutions like tiny houses in order to find affordable housing in cities like London, Manchester, Bath, Nottingham, Cardiff, Brighton and Exeter. Some 19,000 English and Welsh households have moved into caravans or tiny houses, whether fixed or mobile, in the past decade, according to The Guardian, quoting figures from the Office for National Statistics.
This is enough to lure start-ups into the tiny house market. Buying a tiny house costs from £30,000 to £100,000 ($36,000 to $120,800), if it is designed by an architect and built to measure. The prices are attractive, but they mask the legal uncertainty surrounding these homes, which are neither really houses by British standards, nor mobile homes. Some municipalities require full planning permission in order to install a tiny house, according to the Guardian.
But it takes more than that to discourage the advocates of this way of life. Social networks are full of testimonies of people living in tiny houses, some out of economic necessity, and others by ecological conviction. Indeed, living in a tiny house logically decreases energy expenses, but also reduces all other costs. Material needs are also reduced due to the lack of space.
Whatever the reasons for adopting this minimalist lifestyle, tiny houses seem to be attracting a wider audience than ever before. They are emerging as an affordable housing solution as the number of homeless people in the UK continues to rise.
