DOORS&WINDOWS
A window into the
tiny house movement
There is no doubt that the UK faces a housing crisis.
But, at the same time, we are also confronted with an
environmental crisis and one of homelessness.
Here, Nick Cowley, managing director of PVCu
windows and doors manufacturer Euramax,
explains how the Tiny Homes Movement could
be part of the response to all three problems.
» SURELY, SOLVING THE HOUSING
and homelessness crises is simple? We just
build more homes. And the construction
industry’s answer to the climate crisis is simple
as well; we just build fewer homes.
Of course, it is not that simple, and it still
would not be if those two solutions were not
diametrically opposed. Building more homes
comes with problems of its own; planning
permission, local opposition to building
projects and the shortage of affordable and
available land.
There are also the skills and materials
shortages to consider, as well as the relative
lack of small builders in the UK, compared
to fifteen years ago before the financial crisis
of the late noughties and the COVID-19
pandemic.
Furthermore, we must address the
fundamental economics of housebuilding;
it has to represent a worthwhile business
model and, if you build and release for
sale a lot of houses at once, the value of
each one decreases, making the project less
economically sustainable.
TINY HOUSES: UK VIABLE?
The Tiny Homes Movement has existed
for some time, with early estimates dating it
as far back as 1997, when the British born,
and American based architect Sarah Susanka
published her book The Not So Big House. In
it, she argues that cosy, intimate, warm and,
crucially, small spaces can be more pleasant to
live in than expansive, spacious, and rambling
ones.
There is a very clear and strong argument
here, which could help create a counter thesis
to the idea that it’s not possible to solve the
housing shortage and homelessness issues
while also creating a cleaner, more
environmentally viable construction
industry.
Tiny houses are easy to build and, while
they are currently the domain of highly
specialist eco-builders, they could use
modular, mass manufacturing techniques to
deliver sustainable homes at a very low price.
They are also simple to plan and deliver,
easy to move if there is a change in
geographical requirement and use less energy
to manufacture, build, maintain and live in
than contemporary affordable housing. It’s a
win-win, right?
TINY CHANGES, BIG RESULTS
There is one potential catch. It is essential
that tiny homes are presented as exactly that;
they cannot simply be an excuse to make
affordable homes on existing plots untenably
small. In 2019, the Government proposed
mandatory design regulations on storage space
to help counter this problem.
Speaking at the Chartered Institute of
Housing’s conference, Theresa May, the former
Prime Minister, said, “I cannot accept a system
in which owners and tenants are forced to
accept tiny homes with inadequate storage.
“Where developers feel the need to fill
show homes with deceptively small furniture
and where the lack of universal standards
encourages a race to the bottom.”
Her concerns are valid, and the proposed
regulations have been welcomed by most
of the property developers, architects, and
home builders that I work with at Euramax.
Furthermore, they have not dimmed the
nascent sense of excitement around the
tiny homes movement’s problem-solving
potential.
24 » AUG 2020 » CLEARVIEW-UK.COM