In May 2017, the Center for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture Zeeland in Middelburg organized an information meeting about Tiny Houses. Six years later and in the middle of a meadow in Sint Laurens you will find a small Tiny House project with seven houses. A lot has happened in those six years to get this done. The first residents of ‘Mini-uusjes’ settled in their mini-village in April 1922 and live there very happily.
The Tiny House project under construction, photo from 2022. Photo credits: Minu-Uusjes Sint Laurens.
We are visiting Simone, one of the initiators of Mini-Uusjes Sint Laurens. Simone has moved straight from her parental home into her Tiny House and has decorated it entirely to her own style. From the antique furniture to the self-crocheted decorations, this house is Simone through and through and she loves living here. Former initiator Annemarie is also present. Simone serves a delicious lunch with typical Zeeland delicacies on the recently built veranda of her house. We look out over the countryside and enjoy, meanwhile Simone tells us how it all came about that she now lives here.
Simone: ‘The initiative to start a site for Tiny Houses in Middelburg was initially taken by a young couple, they called for more supporters. Twice the group fell apart until at one point only Annemarie and I were left. We started the initiative for a third time, and apparently three times is a charm. In 2018 we approached the municipality and this location had already come into the picture with the previous initiative group. A new neighborhood is being built here, and our project is on the edge in the transition to the countryside. We can live here for at least 10 years. We hope that the project will eventually become a permanent residential location for Tiny Houses.
The cooperation with the municipality went smoothly, but there had already been a lot of consultation between the municipality and previous initiators. The municipality asked us to come up with an image quality plan before the end of March 2019, otherwise they would pull the plug. That was quite a job but luckily it worked out! Simone has set up an association with the other residents, in the future they will change this to an association of owners. This is to legally establish the rights and obligations of the residents towards each other. An ordinary association is more non-committal in this respect. Together, the group has built a beautiful barn with a bicycle shed and a storage room, with a separate cubicle of a few square meters for each house.
A joint helophyte filter has been installed outside because the site is not connected to the municipal sewer. All cottages have a flush toilet. The rainwater that falls on the roofs of the houses runs to a collection pond, so that it can be used by the fire brigade to extinguish the fire in an emergency. It can also be used in the garden. A shared vegetable garden with raised beds and a food forest are still under construction. The construction of water pipes, electricity, the access road and the groundwork has been organized together with the municipality and this has been constructed by a local contractor.
Simone: ‘We live here in a nice age mix: the youngest is 27 and the oldest 57 and almost everyone comes from Walcheren. That made moving here easy for everyone, we had to move our belongings only a short distance. It is only a 15-minute bike ride to the center of Middelburg. We had to make the selection during the corona time, which made it a bit more difficult. We organized ‘speed dates’ and that’s how it worked out. We were allowed to divide the lots ourselves and have chosen to work with different lot sizes. A landscape architect helped us with the site layout, which also required sufficient space for communal elements such as the helophyte filter, the shed and the vegetable garden.’
We presented our project to the villagers at the ‘village table’, which is a meeting where developments regarding the village are discussed and where the municipality enters into dialogue with the residents. We had a full house and the reactions were very positive. We are hopeful that we will be allowed to stay here permanently. The environment will of course change as a complete residential area will be built next to us. But I think we are a very nice addition to that.”
We think so too and we sincerely hope that the municipality decides to grant your project a permanent permit. Thank you very much for the hospitable reception, the delicious lunch and we wish you a lot of living pleasure!
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