The tiny living movement has gained momentum in recent years, evidenced by notoriously addictive television shows like Tiny House Hunters and Tiny House Nation. Comedy Central’s Portlandia even took a friendly knock at the trend in a skit about “microhouses” (“This is a bathroom — and a home office!”). With a loyal following spanning from millennials to retiring baby boomers, the concept of tiny living not only offers a more affordable lifestyle, it also offers a sense of community, creativity, simplicity, sustainability and freedom.
Cincinnati native and University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning architecture grad Brad Cooper is heading the region’s first tiny living project, Start Small Homes. Located just beyond the bustle of Over-the-Rhine, at 142 and 144 Peete St., two tiny homes measuring 25-feet-by-52-feet are slated to stand by August.
Start Small, which first gained funding from philanthropic lab People’s Liberty (Cooper received their $100,000 year-long Haile Fellowship), explores tiny living as a solution to affordable housing, with a focus on holistic, sustainable and quality design.
For perspective, the average home in the United States in 2015 was 2,678 square-feet and had 10 or more rooms, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Cooper is designing an alternative at 1/10th the size, measuring approximately 1,300 total square feet. The design style of the Peete Street homes is contemporary, with an open floor plan and a storage loft above the bathroom on the second floor. Cooper doesn’t have any fixtures planned for the interiors, because those features will all be customizable to whomever purchases the home.
The unit at 144 Peete St. just went on the market for presale this month, with an accompanying tax abatement, and the other unit at 142 Peete St., which will feature some design variations but will not be completely customizable, will be restricted for sale to a low-income household when construction nears completion.
CityBeat recently sat down with Cooper to discuss the progress of Start Small, his plans to build more tiny homes and the lure of the tiny living movement.
CityBeat: How and when did you first learn about tiny living?
Brad Cooper: I first started looking at tiny structures during my undergrad (Cooper has a master’s in architecture from the University of Michigan). I was interested in the artistic things people were doing with them and was interested (in the fact) that it was something someone could possibly build and design themselves.
CB: What are the benefits of tiny living and why do you think there’s a movement toward it right now?
BC: The main benefits to tiny living are that it saves time and money. Statistically, people spend a half hour per day cleaning just the interior of their homes. Also, by reducing the amount of stuff you have, you reduce your carbon footprint. Additionally, it’s a lifestyle choice. People want to get out of their houses and experience the outdoors more, which I think make tiny homes perfect for cities, because you can walk everywhere and take advantage of so many things around you, like parks, coffee shops, bars, outdoor markets, libraries, etc.
The trend nationally shows that people want to live more by themselves than they have in the past. The majority of millennials statistically show they aren’t interested in owning a 2,000-square-foot home in the suburbs. So I think you’ll start to see more apartments and condos with smaller units become available. It makes sense with people rebuilding their cities and with price points and what people are looking for. People are more so now recognizing tiny living as a choice, not something you’re forced into or because you’re “poor.” People are doing it because it’s a lifestyle that they want.
CB: What do you think the tiny living movement is reacting against?
BC: Things go in cycles, and I think part of why there’s a movement toward tiny living right now is maybe a reaction to the housing crisis a few years ago and also maybe a reaction to the culture of the ’90s and its excess. …I think we’re reconsidering housing needs as a whole after 2008 and 2009.
CB: Who do you anticipate your audience will be for the homes?
BC: Anyone. One home will be sold at market rate and the other will be available for a low-income resident — ideally, someone who is already in the neighborhood who wants to buy a home. Community engagement has been such a big part of this project. I don’t want to come in and drop a development down without people realizing what’s going on — it’s important to me to keep them looped into the process. I spent about a week onsite asking neighbors what they wanted to see in a new development there.
CB: What have your biggest successes been so far with this project?
BC: Purchasing the property from Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, who sold it to me for $1 because they believed in what I was trying to accomplish, was definitely a major success as well as getting approval from the Historic Board. I want these buildings to last just as long as the buildings that are still standing nearby.
CB: Do you plan to build more tiny homes in the future?
BC: Yes, absolutely. With this project, I was looking at what was available in Over-the-Rhine, Walnut Hills and places in between. Things that I’d be looking to do would be how to build more than two units and gain more efficiency of scale by sharing resources among the homes such as the kitchen, laundry, driveway, recycling, new sewer and water taps and waste water. I not only want to make them energy-efficient, but also more integrated into a piece of land by being holistically sustainable with energy, water, waste and other materials. Those are things that can’t necessarily be shared or absorbed in a 2,000-square-foot single home, but they maybe could be in 10, 200-square-foot homes.
Learn more about START SMALL HOMES at startsmallhomes.com.
This article appears in Apr 20-27, 2016.
