Een mooie locatie vinden voor je Tiny House blijft een uitdaging. Kan je een gemeente vinden die wil meewerken met je plannen? Wil je optrekken met andere Tiny House bewoners in een gezamenlijk plan of ga je voor een eigen plek? Ga je samenwerken met een bouwer of ontwikkelaar? We hebben enkele Tiny House bouwers gevraagd naar hun ervaringen met het ontwikkelen van locaties. Er zijn mogelijkheden, maar het gaat niet vanzelf.
The first pilot projects
Daniël Venneman is founder-architect at Woonpioniers and a true Tiny House pioneer. Daniël is one of the first designers of a realized Tiny House and developed a site for a group of Tiny Houses back in the early days. ‘The first Tiny Villages often found space in temporary solutions. This was also the case with Proeftuin Erasmusveld in The Hague, completed in 2017 in collaboration with BPD. The test site accommodated 5 Tiny Houses and experimented with off-grid techniques, urban farming, and living with a minimal ecological footprint. Since tiny living was still truly pioneering at the time, parties approached us with potential locations. Among them were also (from a zoning perspective) “impossible” spots. But sometimes, something clicked.
Photo’s above: Proeftuin Erasmusveld, by Woonpioniers and Marcel van den Bergh
A well-thought-out urban design
The subsequent phase looked really different. We saw Tiny House projects emerge, which were truly added as a new flavor to city or village expansion projects. This was the next step in the evolution: municipalities and urban planners embracing “tiny” and giving it a place. Often already framed within a well-thought-out urban design. We designed houses for tiny projects set up by municipalities, such as in Techum, Texel, and Deventer. Together with housing corporation Groeneweerd, we realized a tiny project in the social housing sector. And, of course, the tiny greenhouse homes for Marjolein and some of her neighbors in Olst.
Photo above: Groeneweerd, Tuinen van Zandweerd, Deventer, by Woonpioiers
Even back then, we regularly encountered Tiny House initiatives that had been initiated from the ground up by the people themselves. Sometimes these were successful with a municipality. The result was often a field where the municipality said: “Go ahead, under these conditions, but organize the rest yourself. We will monitor it.” On multiple occasions, we saw these types of projects fall apart spatially or socially. For example, because jointly purchasing expertise or houses proved difficult, as people involved often had vastly different budget ideas. There was also often a lack of an overview of what is truly involved in bringing such a mini-neighborhood to fruition beautifully. With this approach, we sometimes saw areas emerge that resemble a campsite more than a pleasant green neighborhood, where people live who consciously want to reduce their ecological or financial footprint.
Photo above: Olstergaard, Olst, by Jonah Samyn
Introduction of landscape frameworks
In the current market, I find that the development of locations is often hampered by a lack of direction in the initial phase. A fundamental point for improvement is the introduction of landscape frameworks in advance. This provides the necessary clarity for both the developer and the local community and ensures that the green layer of a plan is safeguarded.
To successfully navigate this process, I strongly believe in the importance of tailored professional guidance. Combining a clear vision at the start with the right expertise during execution is crucial to truly get small-scale or complex housing projects off the ground.
Our stance has always been: “We can fill the gaps for which people lack the expertise themselves. However, the will and the capacity to do so must exist within a group.”
Photo above: Tuinen van Zandweerd, Deventer, by Urhahn Urban Design
Collaborating with municipalities and initiative groups
The success of collaboration with municipalities depends heavily on the individual. What I did notice in the beginning is that many municipal officials found it particularly daunting. And sometimes quite rightly so, by the way. And that they appreciate having a professional at the table. My idea is: “It is good if municipalities take an active role and set strong quality standards. And possibly engage professionals themselves who, for example, ensure that the landscape framing of the tiny plots is truly robust. And that a collective layer is added where possible.”
I find it powerful when people approach municipalities themselves to explore opportunities to create healthy, suitable housing solutions. However, I increasingly wonder whether “tiny” is always the right starting point. As far as I am concerned, tiny has never been an end in itself. It is more of a means to enable personal, affordable, and ecological living by downsizing.
Personally, I now believe more in “collective” as a starting point, where “tiny” is just one of the housing options. This is partly because the word tiny has been hijacked by all sorts of commercial parties: quirky recreational cottages or quick, temporary homes promoted under the name tiny. Parties attaching meanings to it that have nothing to do with the (in my opinion) original intention.
Additionally, I think that some tiny initiatives reason too much from the individualism of the participants, and that some participants approach it just a little too individualistically. I can understand that—sometimes it takes years of research and figuring out what you want yourself. However, I think it is important, as soon as the opportunity arises, to realize that you have to do it together. My experience is that with that mindset, the most beautiful and pleasant places are created, in which there is still plenty of room for your unique (tiny) approach.’
Photo above: Buurtskap de Tuunen, Texel, by Woonpioniers
The Future
Daniël observes that there is generally more room for collective housing forms in the Netherlands. ‘You see this reflected in all kinds of policy documents. In addition, there is also a genuinely growing, broad need for it. So yes, that is a broad movement underway.
However, the need behind this, also among administrators, is: “appropriate quality.” In other words, no “fields” with prefab houses, but soulful projects where the prospective residents are truly in control themselves. Well-guided by professionals where necessary. Self-reliant where possible.
If you make use of our new initiative URBUILD, you can design your own bio timber frame house using a high-tech digital tool, tailored to your wishes and the landscape, without paying top dollar for custom work. If you need professional expertise, we will arrange it. In this way, you create an ideal home as the first building block for a collective construction project.
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