Shepherds' hut specialists Plankbridge have announced a major new model, their take on the tiny house which they say can help "to solve residential housing needs and creating a unique and high-quality holiday let."
It's a two-storey house
on wheels, so in a sense fits with their 20+ year record of making mobile spaces for living, on the brief of keeping "heritage and a vernacular
architectural eye at the core of the design" as Plankbridge's statement explains:
"There is a beautiful Dutch barn standing out in a field near Sixpenny Handley, on the Salisbury Road out of Dorset. Richard [Richard Lee, co-founder] has been an admirer of this barn for years, and it turns out so have lots of other people as it is apparently a photographer’s ‘go-to’ location. Old Dutch barns, with their curved corrugated iron roof and cladding, but no walls and often with a sloping catslide roof to the side, suggest a scaled-up shepherd’s hut. They seem to date from the 1800’s in the UK and are known as hay barracks in the USA. They tend to be for storage of straw bales these days. You do see conversions of these actual old barns to housing, in varying degrees of success. All of this history and heritage informed our new design."
Downstairs features include a living area with sofa and space for table and chairs, sliding doors, adjacent kitchen, utility area with an oak worktop and space for a washing machine, and hand-made local willow baskets under the stairs. The shower room is the same as in the company's shepherd’s hut designs, with either an electric or LPG-powered shower, wash basin, and lavatory. Upstairs, there is space for a double bed or two singles, drawer, and cupboard storage. The whole thing is insulated with Thermafleece sheep’s wool and there are various heating and air conditioning options.
More information on the tiny house design here.
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