A Tiny House from the short film ‘Tiny- A Story About Living Small’…Is this an answer to sustainability and affordability challenges? (Click to expand – image via PEFF website).

‘Dream Big, Live Small’ is the motto of a 62-min movie to play at the [excellent] Princeton Environmental Film Festival this Friday, Feb 5 at 4 p.m. at the Princeton Public Library. The film, ‘Tiny: A Story About Living Small’ focuses on a couple who chose to disregard the trend for ever-larger homes, and instead build their own little corner of the world. The emphasis is clearly on the ‘little’, as the home they seek to construct a ‘tiny house’ of just 124 sq ft. It has a living space with an 11-foot ceiling, a small galley kitchen, a small bathroom with a composting toilet and camping-style gravity fed shower and a sleeping loft.

The film is a beautiful story about the American dream, living simply and whether 30-year old Peter, with no construction experience, can get his house built. (see trailer below!) The film also touches on whether it is possible to draw inspiration from the ‘Tiny House’ movement to inform how we build houses more generally; as one commentator puts it:

“the interesting thing about the ‘Tiny House’ movement is whether we can turn it into an innovation…we don’t all have to give up all our material possessions and live in 89 sq. ft, but let’s think about maybe giving up our McMansions and building a little smarter…”

As we have discussed at this site previously, the trend for ever-greater home sizes is contributing to an affordability crisis in Princeton, and allowing smaller houses on smaller lots would be a way of creating housing that normal people can afford, in walkable areas, with a smaller ecological footprint.

This film looks to challenge preconceptions about what constitutes a home. Film-maker Merete Mueller will also be there to answer questions in a Q&A after the screening. This looks to be an excellent chance to find out more and discuss a topic with many important implications for sustainability and planning. Hope to see you there! Or you can find out more about the ‘Tiny House’ movement at the website for the film here.