Social media was drowned by comments about the United States elections last week. Although, I felt like the elections of America did a very good job of dividing us all, we tried to focus on unity by having a Tiny House Zwolle group bonding trip. What is Tiny House Zwolle you ask? Well unlike the United States, The Tiny House movement is still underground in the Netherlands, especially in our home town of Zwolle.
The solution; Tiny House Zwolle, a community formed by Marije and I, through social media to bring together tiny house owners, enthusiasts, and future owners just like us in Zwolle. We have met incredibly passionate individuals with the common goal of pioneering the movement and making their tiny house dreams a reality. Local council and municipality determines rules and regulations regarding all types of housing, and with a large collective of individuals, we believe the council of Zwolle will accommodate this particular type of housing need. On this day, The Tiny House Zwolle “Werkgroep”, decided to have a group bonding trip by accepting an invitation to visit a tiny house being built in a nearby city, Dronten. What better way to get to know our future neighbours (if the council decides to allocate a housing block specifically for Tiny Houses in Zwolle).
We were joined by two other members of Tiny House Zwolle group, Chris and Margot as well as TechGirl CEO, Anke. Our small group was welcome by Kjeld inside a big farm house converted into a workshop for artists. Kjeld has self designed and is building a tiny house for him and his girlfriend Linde. He tells us the reason for starting the project being the need to live a more humble life with more freedom.
After a small tour of the workshop filled with half completed sculptures and artwork, which definitely filled the whole workshop with an inspirational vibe, we stepped into the wood working area and were faced with an under construction yet stunning tiny house on a trailer. Kjeld explained the house had taken a few months to build to where it is at now. The design of the house although not following any particular building codes looked extremely well executed. The structure is spacious yet road worthy as the weight limit of 3.5ton is achievable according to Kjeld. Two of the design features that Marije and I noted down were the removable window frames making the house more transportable friendly and the self made solar battery system. Fundamental characteristics of the Tiny House concept flowed generously in this design, that is the need to be space efficient by thinking out of the box while being sustainable and self sufficient as much as possible.
After admiring the Tiny House, we sat around a table to debrief Kjeld further on challenges they faced and advice for us future Tiny House builders. But I can safely speak for all members of the group, the trip to Kjeld and Linde’s under construction Tiny House certainly left us feeling inspired. Best part of it all has to be Kjeld offering us his workshop after he is complete in few months for our Tiny House to be built. Yes! We now have a great location to build so bring on the blue prints.
Follow the TinyHouse journey of Kjeld and Linde at https://www.facebook.com/TinyHouseLinKje/
