Tiny Homes
Designer: Common Knowledge
Location: Ireland
Type: Tiny Home
Year: 2022
Photographs: Shantanu Starick, Nicola Henley
The following description is courtesy of Common Knowledge. Emerging non-profit social enterprise Common Knowledge has taught 120 people to build mobile Tiny Homes using innovative hemp corrugated panels and other eco-conscious materials, using a design blueprint that will be made free to all.
Common Knowledge teaches people to build, make and mend as a way to empower people to take action on the housing and climate crises. They host sharing workshops and build schools including skills such as; bricklaying, carpentry and welding. Co-founder and lead instructor Harrison Gardner, author of Build Your Own, will also present upcoming RTE series ‘Build Your Own Home’.
The by-product of teaching people to build is of course buildings, and this year they have dedicated their energy to The Tiny Home Project, aiming to equip people to build their own homes, whilst creating four for people seeking alternative housing solutions. With the cost of housing running €5,000 per sqm in Dublin and more than €15,000 per sqm in London, this design offers a finished, sustainably built and consicously-designed mobile space for just €2,750 per sqm metre.
Why Tiny Homes?
With many people currently impacted by a severe housing crisis, we believe a tiny home can provide an affordable solution, which is both highly adaptable and completely mobile. We wanted to create something that would be useful, both in terms of offering a housing solution to people without the time to create one themselves, whilst enabling others to do it themselves.
What’s different about these Tiny Homes?
- Community built – Building the Tiny Homes with their community, teaching more than 120 people with a design that will be shared openly online this year.
- Consciously designed – Their design principles were to strike a balance between sustainable, affordable and consciously designed. They are the first to use hemp cladding from Margent Farm.
The Tiny Homes are now available for sale to the public, from €55-60k. From their enquiries so far, about 50% of people are interested in looking to use them as their principle residence, with 10% seeking to use them as a meanwhile residence during a self-build, and another 10% looking to purchase them for their children to help them escape the rent trap.
About Common Knowledge
Common Knowledge is a non-profit social enterprise based outside Ennistymon on Ireland’s beautiful West Coast. Our mission is to empower people with the skills for an affordable, sustainable and happy home, and we do this through hands-on learning programmes, community projects and the research and development of sustainable and ecological materials and processes. We believe that everyone should have access to a life that is both sustainable and affordable, whilst fulfilling their human need for nourishment, community connection and access to nature.
