'It's more than just a house': tiny home advocates build, show off simple lifestyle

Advocates for tiny homes in Vancouver hoped to convert more people to the minimalist movement by building an eight metre-long house on wheels from scratch at an event Saturday.

"We are for sustainable, well-built, well-designed, safe, dignified homes and tiny houses fit into that category," said B.C. Tiny House Collective foundersAnastasia KoutalianosandSamantha Gambling at Science World, where the house was built in one day.

Tiny homes are often between 200 and 400 square feet and have wheels so they can be moved. Despite their small size, they have most of the common comforts of regular homes, and look the part, only smaller.

20 second tour of a tiny home in Vancouver

7 years ago

Duration 0:22

The Tiny House Collective hopes that city by-laws will change to allow for the small homes help housing crunch.

However, the structuresaren't part of Vancouver's housing stock just yet becausecity bylaws don't allow for them dueto their size, wheels and sometimes other features such as composting toilets.

"Small doesn't have to be inherently bad," said Koutalianos. "I think cities need to start taking notice that not everyone wants to be living in a condo and some people want to own and this is an option for affordable home ownership."

She and Gambling say the homes costbetween $10,000 and more than $100,000.

Two homes were on display on Saturday, along with the one that was built using reclaimed materials.

Koutalianos and Gambling say tiny homes are permittedin U.S. cities like Portland and Seattle and they hopeshowing off the homes will create new advocates for them in B.C.

"Building tall and wide works in some places, but it doesn't work everywhere and we're looking at innovative ways to densify existing neighbourhoods," saidKoutalianos.

• B.C. tiny home advocate presses for municipal regulations
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with files from Mike Zimmer.