“BSA Long-Term Camping Tent Policy. Long-term camping is defined as five or more consecutive nights of camping. The Camp Health & Safety standards of the Boy Scouts of America require that ‘each camper is provided with a minimum of 30 sq.ft. of sheltered space for sleeping and storing personal gear.’ Please note, some states may require more square footage per camper.”

And that’s just for *camping*, not a semi-permanent residence – and latrine, cleaning, and cooking areas are extra. Yes, it’s possible to get a lot smaller – but after a while you need space to air out something that’s gotten wet, or just go batshit crazy because you can’t stretch. There’s purely physical limits, and then there’s psychological limits.

@75: Re: Navy submarines – note that things like the head, the mess, and so on, are in addition to where you actually sleep – so you probably have a bit more square footage available. And submariners are batshit crazy to start, so there’s no issue there. ;)

But I think an overlooked solution–in addition to using more skyscrapers as housing–is to look at resources that can be shared. Communal toilet/kitchens, or perhaps even living rooms, are something that could be generalized beyond college dorms.

It seems to me that anyone using anything more than the absolute minimum required needs to think long and hard about why.

For those who haven’t already seen it, the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company produces many fine examples of itty bitty dwellings, although their smallest is still more than seven times the square footage of Jantzen’s.

He recently ran a contest for under 20sq ft designs:
http://www.countryplans.com/contest.html

Cool stuff.

Funny how the model of a person he used for scale was next to the house, instead of inside it.

I think the model shows us just how psychologically important having enough space.

The porch is a very important part of the design, IMO, because it allows the resident to essentially steal space from the property next door. Which brings up the question, what is surrounding this house? It would be one thing in the middle of a field or some woods, and something else completely if it was in the middle of an acre of similar houses, with say a 2 foot setback around each.

What about books? Cookery? Where’s the fridge?

How could anyone live like that?

Tip: don’t put it under a nut tree, in the summertime the sound of nuts falling on the roof will drive you sane.

i lived several months in a 9 by 11 foot cabin…about 100 square feet. add the sleeping loft and it’s about 140. it wasn’t spacious, but it was certainly an adequate, livable place. were i going to build my own, i would hire a shipwright to design it

I guess the plain cylinder could be a chair, and possibly double as a toilet…but the design shown in the video omits all of the above features. I’d love to see what it looked like when all of that stuff was actually included.

if i was forced to live in this then the first thing i would do would be to put walls around the ‘porch’ and double the inside space.

stupid design.

“It has room for a lavatory, sink, heater, bed, chair, fold-down table, and storage.”
(It has room for all these things, just not at the same time.)