Minitopia is developing new forms of housing, often with small homes, and that is now happening at lightning speed. In Den Bosch, most of the houses are ready and hard work is being done on the outdoor space, which is looking more beautiful each day. Meanwhile, new Minitopias have started in cities such as Waalwijk and Roosendaal. If you want to know more about the project, you can purchase the book by Initiators Tessa Peters and Rolf van Boxmeer here: Minitopia book
Romee and Ruud
Romee remembers well how their adventure started: “I used to own a house and also lived in a Volkswagen van for a while. My father knew one of the initiators and introduced me to her. When I showed the plan for the wooden yurt to the organization, they reacted with enthusiasm right away.” From his rental home in Meppel, Ruud moves in with Romee: “I immediately felt at home and never left, haha!”
The musical duo, better known as Holifools, gives an inspiring tour of the wooden yurt. The house has a high ceiling and a beautiful beam construction, which has remained visible on the inside. “As a result, you really experience the ‘yurt’ and it feels spacious. In the ridge is a dome through which the light falls. It’s so nice to wake up here. Our house actually is a super cozy music studio with 7 guitars, 2 pianos, a glass organ, a clarinet and a violin.”
Romee and Ruud have also been studying food forests for a year: “It would be great if we could become self-sufficient in our food.” They plant as many trees and shrubs as possible and experiment with the soil in their garden. “We see that within a year moss is already growing in some places and the soil is now housing worms because we have left the weeds and planted as many different species as possible, this is great!!”
In and around the yurt it is a cozy environment with two dogs, exotic birds, chickens, a rooster and since recently two added mini pigs. “Our dream is to eventually create a really large food forest and live in it as a food foresters. Then we will just bring the house with us. Just imagine all those barren agricultural fields turned into edible forest areas, where people live in sustainable homes. Where animals scurry around and birds and butterflies return to the land.”
Renske and Koen
Renske is a biology teacher and loves yoga and diving. Koen is an architect and likes to grab his longboard or make time to juggle. Renske: “In 2018 we started looking for accommodation, but we found € 1200,– per month for a studio at Strijp to be a real waste of money. We cut and pasted a house design kit that was featured in Flow Magazine at the time, and so the idea was born to design a Tiny House ourselves along the canals of Utrecht.”
When the drawings are ready, the enterprising couple starts looking for a place to build and live, and it turns out that they can do so on Minitopia. “After our registration, we were soon told that we could pitch our project. That was easy with our detailed design and we quickly received confirmation that we could come and live at Minitopia. Several homes were built in a warehouse on the adjacent site, and we were also welcome to build our house here. Everything fell into place!”
The house consists of three rooms, which are connected by a central hall: the kitchen, the bathroom and the conversion room. What is immediately noticeable in the living kitchen are the high horizontal windows with a large window sill at height to gain space. Renske explains enthusiastically: “We use a beamer to project onto a roller blind in front of the sliding door, so that we don’t need a TV. The kitchen unit is extra deep to create storage space and the wall cabinets are therefore also deeper. By placing two wall units above each other, we even have our own ‘scullery’.
The photographs above are made by Lennart Vonk.
Lennart
After having lived in a luxurious home for a number of years, and having been involved in the daily work rhythm, Lennart is starting to get itchy. He decides to leave his house for what it is and to make a trip with his motorcycle and a tent. When he returns, it turns out to be difficult to find a new home. Until he comes into contact with Minitopia.
The young pioneer is given the opportunity to build a home for himself. Housing corporation Zayaz gives 5 people 30,000 euros each to realize their own house. The amount is paid off with the rent. Lennart decides to participate in the selection rounds and is one of the lucky ones. With the help of the housing corporation, friends, family and by outsourcing some of the work to a carpenter, Lennart manages to make the house habitable and he can now enjoy living in his self-built ‘observatory’.
Lennart has found out how little he actually needs to be truly happy. A small house is fine. With a smile: “But not a small house which makes me feel confined. I want a house in which I have the feeling that I live outside or in nature, just like in my tent. That is why I quickly decided to go for a dome, the top of which is made of glass.” Water and electricity are available on site. For budget reasons and for convenience, Lennart has opted for electrical heating. In addition, his boiler is electric and cooks on induction. “It was handy at the time because of the budget, now it kind of hurts my wallet.”
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