Tiny House Model

This is a 1:6 scale model of a tiny house. It was built as a team project for UCSD’s Engineers-for-a-Sustainable-World club. We researched environmentally-friendly housing materials that could be used to build new modern homes. For example, we learned that sheep’s wool is a great insulator and has better properties than fiberglass or foam. It was better at retaining heat in the winter, is a natural fire retardant, and prevents moisture from entering the home.

The goal of this tiny house project was to build a scale model that would incorporate sustainable building materials. We wanted to demonstrate how environmentally friendly construction can have better specifications and also be cheaper than current practices.

Ultimately, we decided on the following materials:

• Sheep wool insulation
• Reflective glass roofing shingles
• UV reflective exterior paint
• UV reflective windows
• Rooftope solar panels
• FSC plywood exterior

We had longterm plans for miniature modular furniture and functioning solar panel demos.

I constructed the frame of the house. It measured around 3 feet long and 1.5 feet wide, which is 1/6th of the actual house size. The frame was built from FSC pine that I resawed into thin strips. The strips simulated the studs of a house, and were sized accordingly. The spacing between the studs matched California’s Building Code. The roof had a pitch that was optimal for solar panel light collection.

Unfortunately, this project was never completed. The frame was constructed in the summer of 2014.