More and more places are becoming available where small groups of Tiny Houses can be placed, and more often they are allowed to stay longer or even permanently. Daniël Venneman, founding architect of Woonpioniers, was involved in one of the first Tiny Villages in the Netherlands in 2017 and now supports multiple area and location developments. How does he assess these developments?
Example Tiny Neighborhood – Woonpioniers in collaboration with HNS – drawing by Léa Soret
Daniël remembers it well—it was a small revolution at the time, having a dedicated spot for multiple Tiny Houses: “In 2017, Woonpioniers completed ‘Proeftuin Erasmusveld’ in The Hague. As far as I know, this was one of the first official Tiny Villages in the Netherlands. A few years later, the residents moved to a Tiny House location in Delft when Erasmusveld had to be prepared for a different type of housing destination. So, it was a temporary place, but no less groundbreaking in the emergence of Tiny House villages.”
Groeneweerd, a tiny co-housing project in Deventer by Woonpioniers
Nowadays, Woonpioniers also focuses on other forms of living together for Tiny House residents. “The logical next step after downsizing is not wanting to own everything yourself but sharing with others in a smart way. We believe that this approach indeed leads to much more efficient and healthier cities, both socially and ecologically. This is why we have naturally grown into designing CPO projects (Collective Private Commissioning), which often share the same ecological principles.”
Daniël finds it particularly interesting that you can take faster and bigger steps with private individuals compared to waiting for action from professional developers or governments: “Precisely due to the insistence of private individuals, whom we identify alongside developers and housing corporations as the ‘third building stream,’ more collective housing solutions are now emerging in various places. In my view, it’s a fantastic alternative way to make a positive impact and handle things yourself.”
Working and sharing together
For Daniël, it’s about the best of both worlds: “Having your own place while simultaneously investing collectively in sustainable solutions that pay for themselves. Less fencing, and more space for connection, movement, and biodiversity. We urgently need to care for the earth beneath our feet and for each other.”
In the context of Tiny Houses, this hopefully means that we can increasingly focus on projects that are collectively oriented from the start. So, less individualistic.”
Each person still gets their own house, but the project is organized as an integrated whole from the beginning. Daniël explains: “Think of a collective garden as the foundation, truly sharing energy, collective meeting spaces, and organizing mobility together. I love it when ensembles emerge where each house is unique but still part of the same family. That’s exactly what we try to create with our adaptable concepts. This way, you get both scale benefits and a personal touch, the best of both. We are already putting this into practice with the Rentree project, a competition by housing corporation Rentree that we won. Together with the corporation and the residents, we are creating a Tiny Village, including permaculture. In my opinion, the houses could still be a bit wilder!”
How Big, Then?
What would be the ideal size for a collective solution with small houses? “Perhaps small ensembles of 8 houses will become small neighborhoods of 20 to 30 homes in the future. In our view, a perfect size, where you can still manage things well together without losing connection, but with the necessary scale advantages. Where landscape and homes can truly blend together. It would also be fantastic if more social housing projects for Tiny Houses are realized.”
Woonpioniers would love to play a role in creating these new Tiny House collectives. Daniël: “We are a team of passionate architects within a network of specialists: landscape architects, energy experts, and experts in various building techniques such as hempcrete, straw construction, etc. We are even building an earthship in the dunes—a ‘duneshio,’ you could say. We do this with all kinds of experts and planners who share our passion. Together, we can give wings to the third building stream and create opportunities to tackle the Dutch housing challenge both in quantity and, especially, in quality.”
Photo credits: Jonah Samyn
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