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Raven Wilson
ANT 355: Lit Review
9 February 2016
Working Title: Sustainable Living and Tiny Houses

Cowen, Tyler. "Why Texas Is Our Future." TIME. TIME Inc. Network, 28 Oct.
2013. Web.
People are moving to Texas in droves for economic benefits, cultural matches,
and job security. Cowen discusses the stratification of the middle class and its
effects on the housing climate of Texas and the states of migrants.
Anthropologically, much of Cowen's piece led me to the cultural leads that I
need to follow up on including: migration patterns, personal backgrounds, education
levels, financial situations and much more. Many of the people migrating to Texas
have significant higher education in addition to being young entrepreneurs. One of
the selling points for Texas is the low cost of living, including the cost of a house.

Turnbull, Elizabeth. "Tiny House." Oz: Vol. 31 (2009). Web.

Turnbull designed and built her own Tiny Home. She discusses the ways in
which she discovered the Tiny House community, the design goals, some challenges
she faced, and the building process. Her house involves environmentally-friendly
alternatives to harmful construction chemicals and byproducts. Her design and
construction was also thoroughly documented so that she could share her
experience with other Tiny House enthusiasts.
She mentions many alternatives to harmful construction tactics that I have
been looking into for my project such as grey water systems, zoning challenges, and
recycling environmentally-harsh materials. Her concept of "Tiny Raising" interested
me particularly with the cultural and anthropological aspect of the house raising.
Many tiny homes tend to encourage opposing ideals: independence and freespiritedness, with community and utility/altruism.

Lipke, David J. "Green Homes." American Demographics 2001. EBSCO

Publishing. Web.
Lipke discusses the benefits of eco-friendly houses with the economical and
environmental consequences at stake. People are more likely to purchase "green"

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products if they know that the product is somewhat endorsed by a government
institution. Lipke believes that the builders that are able to accommodate the ecofriendly builders and residents will be the ones that are able to function in business
for the longest. He reiterates how important it is for the people controlling the
industry to make these ecologically-friendly options available to their markets. This
shift is what has lead to successful communities of eco-housing.
A cultural shift that I saw within his piece included the quote "Instead of being
seen as a hippie subdivision, now people say we're too expensive and exclusive."
The way of living eco-friendly and possibly tiny are becoming less foreign to the
general population and are blending into mainstream and upper class; which
contradicts with some of my other research about financials.

Paul, Corey. "As Mobile Home Sales Fall, Parks Remain Full." Odessa
American (Texas). Tribune Content Agency, 9 Jan. 2016. Web.
Paul discusses the recent economic changes in mobile home parks in Texas.
He discusses the relation between the economic boom and mobile home
communities through the group rates that certain companies or business have so
that their workers have a place to live. It remains relatively resilient against more
expensive options. This quote wraps up the article in a nutshell, which leads me to
more research about poverty and its relation to tiny home living.
While this article largely relates to strictly mobile home complexes and RV
parks, the portion that is pertinent to my project is the renting situation. The
tenants rent the land, but own the home they live in; this is the same scenario for
mobile and eco-friendly tiny homes. According to several of the forums that I have
looked at, many people that live in tiny homes must result to hooking up their
homes to the systems in the parks. If the pricing changes in the parks, that is
another financial challenge/availability that tiny home owners must face.

Scarce, Rik. Creating Sustainable Communities: Lessons from the

Hudson River Region. New York: State U of New York, 2015. Print.
Scarce covers many topics throughout the book including environmental
racism, economic (capitalism) systems, and community social structures to cover a
few. He covers the economic and technological shift that caused a change in social
normalcy, such as throwing away leaves and the auto-dependent communities since
the migration to the suburbs. These topics are relevant to the tiny house movement
and the change in cultural, economic and political norms.
While the book is hyper focused on the Hudson River Region, the concepts
discussed in the book are applicable to many urban and suburban areas throughout
America. The most noted portion of the text was the excerpts about how growth is

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smart when it creates choices and opportunity with a thriving natural environment.
This statement is a standout to me because it made me reconsider how I was
thinking about the topic. Should I be researching more smart homes? I need to
research the difference between Scarces definition of smart and eco-friendly
because they sound similar in context, however could have different overall goals.

Adam, Hubertus. "Diogene." ArchDaily 12 June 2013. Web.

This piece is on the micro-space created by Italian architect, Renzo
Piano. The home is completely self-sustaining and sufficient. Adam
emphasizes that the home was intended for self-moderation and was
conscious of spatial environment, rather than for economic efficiency. He also
discusses how the concept of minimalist dwellings are actually ancient but
have evolved over economic and social shifts, such as mobile living
structures for use of a natural disaster. Ending out the piece, Adam states
that due to the Diogenes incredibly compact size and intended functionality
the home changes the way that tenants think about communication between
the individual and society.
The Diogene, while incredibly eco-friendly with its self-sustaining
systems, is intended for a short-time stay or additional residence and not as
a permanent residence. The development of this dwelling is a starting point
in creating the types of homes that would be both tiny and eco-friendly. I
plan to use this source as an ideal home in terms of environmental
sustainability rather than spatial conservation. This home is not livable for
the same type of person that is interested in most tiny houses that I have
researched.
Altomonte, Sergio, Peter Rutherford, and Robin Wilson. "Human
Factors in the Design of Sustainable Built Environments." Intelligent
Buildings International 4th ser. 7 (2015): 224-41. EBSCO. Web.
The authors state how through the evolution of humans, our relationship with
our home spaces have evolved depending on how much time we spend outdoors.
Now, we spend the most time indoors and thus we believe we need more room. In
the definition of intelligent building the authors describe a long list of tasks that a
building must provide in order to be considered intelligentcan we have it all? The
piece emphasized the importance of designing the building for the user, to make
them compatible in terms of lifestyle and spatial comfort (privacy). Overall, this
piece discusses many of the challenges faced with designing a home, especially one
that is eco-friendly or intelligent.

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The authors comment on the many sections of intelligent/smart housing
which is a large portion of the eco-friendly home that I am trying to analyze. I did
not take into consideration the homeowners lifestyle because I have been putting
tiny home owners into the categories of their demographic. The different
considerations for design have a large effect on how successful tiny homes can be
in the popular view and in utility for the homeowner. The overall goal of a home, in
general, is to create a kind of homeostasis between the dwellers and the
environment surrounding, a strong relationship between the two is the key to good
home design; therefore, if this design is to be tiny and eco-friendly than the
relationship between the person and the environment needs to be strongwhich
has been my general findings when researching tiny home owners.

UPDATE
http://www.dwell.com/modern-world/article/micro-dwellings-across-america
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5525283
http://www.smallhouseliving.org/random-thoughts/history-sm-housemvmnt.htm
Check above source. Seems incorrect on dates.
http://tinyhousetalk.com/
Good community site.
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2014/04/28/12-tricked-out-tinyhouses-and-why-they-cost-so-much/#c54f464694a3
Good financial side.