I live in a small house on a street of big houses. And when I say big, some of the houses on my street are 7,000 and 8,000 square feet. A big house signifies an important person, right? The governor lives in a mansion. The Archbishop of Hartford lives down the street from him in a house that's even bigger.
Maybe it's significant that in each case, the person in question doesn't have to clean the house or pay to heat it. On this show, you'll meet a group of people who have moved in the other direction. People are living in houses smaller than 200 square feet, modified dumpsters, and interlocked shipping containers, all willingly and enthusiastically. We learn how easy it can be, and what challenges are in the way for people trying to live simply.
Hear from a woman who built in and lives in a tiny house in California, a builder who makes it all happen with free and found materials, a New Yorker who has been living in his custom-built dumpster for years, and an architecture firm currently building a stackable community of waterproof shipping containers that have been modified to provide safe, clean housing for students in Washington, D.C
What would you build? Comment below, email Colin@wnpr.org, or tweet @wnprcolin.
GUESTS:
- Tammy Strobel is a writer, photographer, teacher, and runs RowdyKittens.com, where she talks about living simply in her tiny house in northern California
- Derek Diedricksen is a Connecticut native and the author of Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy Cottages, Ramshackle Retreats, Funky Forts: And Whatever The Heck Else We Could Squeeze In Here, and he blogs at RelaxShacks.com. He specializes in building habitats with free and found materials
- Greg Kloehn is an artist and builder of a dumpster home in New York. He's also building homes for the homeless out of illegally dumped garbage in Oakland, California
- Travis Price of Travis Price Architects is currently building SeaUA, a community of 18 sea containers in Washington, DC
