Hello House: The Future of Design is Community
I have the pleasure of
writing for Tiny House Magazine each month. We’ve been given permission to reprint
our articles a month after initial publication, and I was so happy with this
one, I wanted to share. However, I do encourage you to subscribe as well.
The small town of
Clarkston, Georgia, sits about 11 miles to the east of Atlanta. It’s a
community known for inclusion, diversity, and, now, tiny homes. The Cottages on
Vaughan is a first-of-its-kind development in the city made up of 8 small and
tiny houses in a pocket neighborhood centered around a common green space.
The community was the
vision of Will Johnston, the Executive Director, Founder, and CEO of Microlife
Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. It’s an organization founded in Atlanta to
promote the use of small and tiny homes. The mission is to educate individuals,
groups, and cities about the positive impacts of micro-living. They are putting
their money where their mouth is by building The Cottages on Vaughan community.
I had a chance to visit
the community on a gorgeous Georgia spring day. I met with Will, who will also
be living in the cottages, and my friend Rachel who was excited to show me her
tiny house under construction. I also spoke with Rich Pasenow whose home is the
smallest in the community at only 250 square feet.
The community is steps
away from Refugee Coffee, and we met up with Rachel over coffee and chai before
heading to the cottages. I could immediately see how the community was situated
ideally in the city.
I asked both Rachel and
Rich about why they choose to buy a home in the community.
“It was the middle of the
summer during the pandemic,” Rachel told me. “I was sitting on my couch
basically feeling sorry for myself. Then I saw Will Johnston posting on
Facebook that the tiny house community he had been working on for years was
finally going to be constructed. It suddenly occurred to me that I could
actually do this.”
Previously, Rachel and
Will had lived in the same cohousing community together, so she already knew he
would make a great neighbor.
For Rich, the idea
started to germinate years before. “In early 2018, I saw a show about tiny
houses. I was going through a divorce at the time, and since I didn’t own a lot
of stuff and I wanted to own a home again, I figured that going with a tiny
house would be perfect for me.” But his search for tiny homes in Atlanta didn’t
return a lot of results. But he was able to connect with Microlife
Institute. “I wanted a home on a
permanent foundation, and I didn’t have the time or inclination to deal with
permitting and zoning issues involved with placing a tiny house on wheels in
most locations.”
The Cottages on Vaughan
is a pocket neighborhood of eight homes, all under 500 square feet. Seven of
the eight homes are about 492 square feet, with just one, Rich’s house, at 250.
“The basic layouts of the homes are all the same. Mine is just smaller.”
After Rachel decided to
buy a home in the community, she began to take trips to the building site. She
admits it was pretty underwhelming at first. The site was cleared, mostly dirt,
so the entire concept was hard to envision. “But I took pictures, went home,
and started staring at the floor plans and imagining myself living there. Over
the rest of the summer, every few weeks, I would get up early enough before it
was crazy hot and bike over to visit the site.”
“This will, by far, be
the smallest house I’ve ever lived in,” Rich said. “But I don’t think going
tiny will be a huge change in my lifestyle. I actually like the idea of knowing
that I will have to consider the fact that anything I buy from this point
forward will need a place to go. When you only have 250 square feet, that will
generally mean not buying anything you don’t need. It will not just be cost-saving
for me, but I will produce less waste.”
Rachel is also anticipating
her expenses going down. “I’m a little tempted to buy a Tesla Model 3 after I
sell my townhouse, but my Chevy Volt just got paid off, and it’s a great car,
so I’ll hold on to that idea for a while.”
In Rachel’s tiny home,
where she could pick details like the countertops and flooring material, I saw
how it would be a cozy but roomy place to live when construction was complete.
There are no stairs to the loft yet, but it will add plenty of room for storage
or maybe even a home office. Even with a small 24-inch vanity, the bathroom is
notably larger than the bathroom in my own 700 square foot bungalow. The
vaulted ceilings in the main living space are lined with windows allowing for
incredible natural light. And the porch, without stairs at the moment, would be
a great spot to add a table and chairs for al fresco dining or hanging out with
neighbors over coffee.
More than anything, I was
struck by the excitement all three new homeowners felt when they talked about
living in the community. Will told me that was a big part of the concept. “It’s
crucial as we move forward to retrofit and connect urban, suburban, and rural
areas together. We are experiencing a loneliness epidemic. So many Americans
are facing complete isolation, and it’s literally killing us. We need to and
should interact more with our neighbors.”
“I’m really looking
forward to being part of both the CoV community and the Clarkston Community.
Since the start of COVID, the owners have been doing weekly Zoom meetings,
which have been a great opportunity to get to know my future neighbors, and I’m
really looking forward to being able to interact with people on a more
face-to-face level once we all move into the community,” said Rich.
Rachel agreed. “I’m so
excited to go live in a tiny community with great people in a space I helped
design and only bring the things I consciously decide to have in the house.
After living in a very large cohousing community, I think it’s going to be a
nice change to have a small group of 8 people who all want to live in this
neighborhood.”
Construction is still
happening fast and furiously, but the homes aren’t quite done, and as we stood
in the central courtyard, now just clay and construction debris, I had to
imagine what the cottages would look like when complete. But once they are,
Will told me, they will be hosting monthly tours set up like small tiny house
festivals. You
can sign up for more information here.
“The future of design is
community,” Will reiterated. “We are just one of many examples of how you can
utilize space, layout, and structures to drive a better-connected community.
It’s up to us to direct the narrative.”
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