Tiny houses: living the dream of a minimalist existence

Soaring trees, a small river and the twittering of birds - this is the backdrop to Elke’s life in her tiny house. She lives on a small plot of land surrounded by greenery on a campsite close to the city of Karlsruhe in southern Germany. The 64-year-old has been living in one of a whole colony of tiny houses here for a year now - the tiny home she owns boasts less than 30 square metres of floor space. The idea of living in such a confined space had been growing in Elke’s mind for quite some time, “because I firmly believe that we all overload our lives with too much stuff,” she says. 

How is “tiny” in fact defined? 

According to the Tiny House Association, a good 75,000 people in Germany are interested in this kind of lifestyle. For a home to qualify as a tiny house, its floor space must not exceed 50 square metres - these miniature houses are minimalist and functional in design and some even have wheels. In 2023, apartments in Germany had on average a good 92 square metres of floor space, though houses tend to be significantly bigger.  

Before Elke moved into her tiny house surrounded by nature, she lived in a one-bedroom flat in the centre of Freiburg. Her new home comprises just one room: an open-plan living area with a kitchenette and small dining table. A sliding door leads to a small bathroom. There is also an extra retractable level that contains the mattress she sleeps on. Every centimetre of space has been thought-out down to the last detail: the steps leading up to the sleeping level also provide cupboard space for crockery, and when Elke has overnight guests she can put them up in a small area above the bathroom that can be accessed via a ladder. Despite the lack of space - her tiny house isn’t even three metres wide - Elke doesn’t feel that anything is missing. Nevertheless, she did have to get rid of some of her stuff - such as 1,500 books - when she moved out of her flat a year ago. And now she lives a minimalist and sustainable existence close to nature in a tiny house - her dream lifestyle.  

The potential of tiny houses 

But is a tiny house really so sustainable? Can cities even afford such miniature homes given the lack of living space? “City planners mistakenly believe that tiny houses take up an enormous amount of space,” says Randolph Liem. He is an architect and a board member of the Tiny Houses for Karlsruhe association. He sees tiny houses as the ideal solution for vacant plots of urban land. Thanks to their compact dimensions and mobility, the miniature homes can also be installed in triangular gardens or disused multistorey car parks. This creates additional living space, he explains.  

Another thing he loves about tiny houses is the fact that they can be builtin a resource-saving manner using recycled materials. New sustainable constructions could be much more compact and therefore built more quickly. For example, the facade of the association’s new building is made entirely of recycled sheet metal and insulated with jute. 

Life in a tiny house colony 

Once installed in their tiny house, most people see the benefits as outweighing any downsides. Many value the strong sense of community that results from living in close proximity to one another. In Elke’s colony of around 20 other tiny houses, street parties and swap shops are organised and people support one another as a matter of course. “Occasionally there may be a bit too much good advice,” she chuckles, “but generally speaking everyone has a sense of where the boundaries lie.”