WEBVTT

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Some of my friends have bought a house,

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a reasonably priced,
three or four bedroom.

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Not expensive, but enough to tie them
to a 30-year mortgage.

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They work a nine-hour day, and travel
two hours to get there and back.

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By the time they get home, relax, sleep;

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they have to get up and do it all again.

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Sometimes they say
they feel a little bit trapped.

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Realistically, half of the rooms
in that house are empty all the time.

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And they're always looking forward
to their next holiday,

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away from it all -

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the house included.

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Apparently, this is quite normal.

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My partner Andrew and I
are at about this point in our lives.

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But the idea of striving for this kind
of lifestyle seems out of balance.

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Health, nature, and time
feels like it's being traded

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for house, money, and stuff.

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I guess, most of us follow the same path:
buy as much as we can afford,

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in the best area we can afford, 
and adjust our lifestyles to suit.

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Usually this means
a big house in the suburbs

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with a bit of a commute.

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The problem I have with this is that
I believe our physical environments

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enforce habits, both good and bad.

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We build the world's biggest houses, 
and fill them with stuff,

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worsening our ecological footprint.

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Many of our houses are quite insular,

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turning their backs on neighbors
and the public street.

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We take out crippling mortgages

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in our pursuit for the great
Australian dream,

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and sacrifice our welfare,
our relationships, and our hobbies.

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So this was a bit of a problem for us.

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What we really wanted was something
a lot smaller and more flexible

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than what the market offered.

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We wanted to buy something
within our means,

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and have our lifestyle adapt our home,
not the other way around.

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Our homes could be so much more,
and take so much less.

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They could offer us easy ways
to process our own waste,

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or recycle our water.

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They could offer us ways to collect
and monitor our energy usage,

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or foster connected communities.

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And of course, like many problems,
this isn't just a personal problem,

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this issue is broader;
it's on the national and global scale.

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Our homes demand huge amounts
of energy to build and operate.

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Not only this, but they produce
large amounts of waste.

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And the land clearing required
for new low-density development

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is an ongoing problem.

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And yet, we stubbornly march forward,
building bigger and bigger houses yearly.

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The average floor plan size
or the average area of our houses

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has steadily grown over the past 15 years.

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And simultaneously, the number of people
living in these houses has declined.

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And to top it all off, many of us
can't even afford to buy a house.

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The average price of our houses
in Australian capital cities

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is now more than seven times
our average annual income.

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That's huge. 


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So the last year my partner and I,
and a builder-mate of ours,

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teamed up with his small crew as well,
to design and build an alternative.

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Something based on our desires,
and not the market expectations.

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You may have heard of the term,
a "tiny house" before.

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In our case, it's essentially
a fully functioning house

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condensed down into 18 square meters,

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which is two car-parking spaces.

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The product is a home
that is transportable,

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more affordable than the average house,

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and also, more environmentally friendly.

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So let me give you a quick tour.

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The house is built on a trailer,

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so you can tow a fully functioning house
onto site and park it there.

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You enter the house via the deck.

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The deck is made up of modular panels,
that attach to the side of the house

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when you arrive on site,
doubling the width.

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The doors and windows are made
of recycled floor joists of old cottages,

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and this recycled timber-fill
is continued through on the bench tops,

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the shelves, and the decking boards.

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Because space is such an issue,

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it was important to maintain
good views through the house.

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So the front entry windows and doors

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line up with the windows
in front of the kitchen.

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Once inside, you are presented
with long views through the house.

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The rhythm of the portal frames
helps to organise the space,

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and reduce the feeling of clutter.

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Up one end, is an L-shaped
lounge space,

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and behind that
is floor-to-ceiling storage.

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By day, this is a lounge space,

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and by night, a bed
is lowered down from the ceiling.

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In the central space,
on one side is the kitchen bench,

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and on the other side is a narrow bench,

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which turns into the vanity
and the laundry space.

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And at the far end is the bathroom,

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which is separated from
the main space by a sliding door.

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The bathroom contains a full-size shower,
and a composting toilet,

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because this one was designed
to be able to be off-grid.

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Above the backroom space is a loft,

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which could be used
as additional sleeping space

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for a double or a queen bed,
or for more storage space.

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It was really important for us

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to make the space feel
a lot bigger than it actually is.

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And some of the strategies
we used for this

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were the high ceilings with the louvers,

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white walls,

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views were carefully organised
through and down the space,

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and strategic placement of some mirrors.

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Of course, aesthetics aside,


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it was important that it functions
really well as a house.

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So in such a small home,
storage was really important.

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We had to exploit every
opportunity we could:

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under the floor, in the walls,
around the wheel-arches, in the furniture.

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Of course, as well,
we had to enact different scenarios

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of how the space would be used.

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So, what would we do
when we had guests over?

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How could the space be rearranged
for different activities of the day?

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So far, the capacity has been 30.

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(Laughter)

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In designing the house,

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we had to fit a lot of things
into quite a small space.

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But for us, the ultimate
measure of success

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was were we able to retain
the essence of a home.

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Sure, it's not for everyone,
but it suits us well.

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Being built on a trailer meant
that there are many alternatives

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for how the space is used.

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People who own land
could expand their space

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by adding an additional
bit of accommodation.

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Those that don't own land,
it can open up many options for them.

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And that is the case
with my partner and I.

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Arrangements can be made,
and if you bring your home with you,

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it's amazing where
you can find places to live.

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There's also opportunities for people
who have live-in workers

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or dependent family members,

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even holiday accommodation.

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Of course, there's also
further things to consider

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with movable, small modular homes

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about disaster relief housing,
and communities that want to be off-grid,

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or more remote properties.

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And a tiny house
that can function fully off-grid

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works well in those scenarios. 


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Another issue that is worth briefly
mentioning is our aging population,

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and various different ways our housing

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might not be tailored
well enough for that,

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and how small dwellings could be used

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either in the property of children
for elderly parents,

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or even in the back
of their own properties,

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and they could rent
or sell their larger house,

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and still stay in their own community.

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With a bit of creative thinking
and collaboration with counsels,

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developers, neighbors, friends, family,

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I believe we could overcome
a lot of issues we have with our housing.

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Whether we like it or not,
our housing is a reflection of who we are

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and what we value as a society.

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So the status quo of Australian
housing should concern us.

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We are building bigger and bigger houses,
and we need not; perhaps we should not.

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I don't want to try and convince
you all to live in a tiny house.

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What I would like to pose is a challenge


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to dismiss our preconceptions,

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to put aside those preconceptions
about our home and to really think

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what do we want our home to provide.

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I think that only
when we get to that point

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can we reflect on what's really important
in our homes, and our lifestyles.

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It's very difficult
to put a price on a lifestyle.

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But for me, it's definitely
worth more than the fourth bedroom.

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(Applause)