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my sketch for a village of tented container micro homes, with trelised tomatoes, rice paddies and fish pond for water recycling, and parabolic mirror for solar heat collection on meeting house roof
a review of micro homes
Micro homes can offer an alternative cheap housing option, as well as a way of helping not to harm the planet. This can be accomplished by making less of a footprint in space and energy with a dwelling, using green energy design and recycled materials. This makes them ideal both for intensification in urban spaces and for setting up eco villages. I've decided to review some basic types of micro home on this and some other pages. One exciting possibility is to incorporate a green roof, and I've reviewed one of the most economical forms of doing this.
green magic homes
Green Magic homes are made in Mexico. They are built of precast dome sections which are fitted together like orange sections and then covered with earth and grass. Each dome could be considered a tiny home, but when several are connected up they make quite large complex structures. You can cover the roof with grass, vegetable and herb gardens or other small vegetation. Their strong point is that they are energy efficient because of the earth lying on top of the prefab shell, and from a distance they really melt into the landscape. They also have a surreal futuristic or fantasy appeal. They aren't really affordable for the average South African, though they are cheap by American standards.
arched cabins as micro homes
One of the cheapest micro home structures is the arched cabin. Its basically all corrugated roof plus extras. They can be pretty roomy inside (90m square plus a sleeping loft, though it depends on the model). Thank you dear Lizza for sending me this url. I'm thinking how it could be built with locally available materials like corrugated iron.
containers as micro homes
Because of particular economic constraints on what I can do regarding housing and land, a while ago I got very excited about building with old shipping containers. They pile up in Cape Town's port and can be had for R30 000 which is cheaper than both the options above. Their availability means they are already used here everywhere, part of the local culture, called Zozo huts. They serve as lock up and go micro retail outlets on the station roof, and in many parts of town, for storage, as homes, mini police stations, school classrooms, offices (at the Haven night shelter) and more. On the more designed end of the spectrum I've seen lovely single one's used in Australian backyards as granny flats, beautifully even luxuriously fitted, and they can be elegantly enlarged by extending the roof with tarps or decks, so that they are not at all cramped and have good flow between inside and outside.
LIke lego, you can also do so much with them depending on the configuration you place them in or stack them in. The ideas for their configurations I've had myself are surpassed by this set container of images. Of course these are complex buildings built with containers, and are not strictly tiny homes anymore. But I will post the picture of my Zozo city below which has a parabolic sun collector in the middle for heating water, that shades a meeting place in the midst of fish ponds and rice and tomato beds with roots in water (tomatoes thrive on aquaponic cultivation) acting as water filters.
Below is a four container structure with big stair wells at the centre and open balconies. I'm not an architect so my ideas for construction may not be optimal.
LIke lego, you can also do so much with them depending on the configuration you place them in or stack them in. The ideas for their configurations I've had myself are surpassed by this set container of images. Of course these are complex buildings built with containers, and are not strictly tiny homes anymore. But I will post the picture of my Zozo city below which has a parabolic sun collector in the middle for heating water, that shades a meeting place in the midst of fish ponds and rice and tomato beds with roots in water (tomatoes thrive on aquaponic cultivation) acting as water filters.
Below is a four container structure with big stair wells at the centre and open balconies. I'm not an architect so my ideas for construction may not be optimal.
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home page for green ideas and useful links on ecological issues and green living
different ways of building green
my collection of diverse micro homes and space saving interior fittings on pinterest
greener homes and home management
eco cities
affordable designer homes made in Cape Town from converted containers