Micro-House

Build Tiny has designed a tiny house with a compact layout that's all on one level. Named the Piwakawaka, it features a well-stocked kitchen, and a bedroom and living room that open up to the outside with double glass doors.

Twente Additive Manufacturing has designed what it calls the first 3D-printed home in Canada. Named the Fibonacci House, the concrete tiny house is inspired by the Fibonacci number sequence, and is available for rent on Airbnb.

Forget the stereotype of a shed on wheels, some of the largest tiny houses are more like apartments and push the boundaries of what's possible in a towable home. With this in mind, we have a look at five of the biggest tiny houses we've seen so far.

Casa Ojalá defies easy classification, but is a definite departure from the shed-on-wheels design of most tiny houses. It features a flexible interior layout and space-saving furniture, as well as sliding walls that open it up to the outside.

Minimaliste's recently completed Noyer XL takes the spacious design of its hardy Noyer tiny house and makes it even bigger, with a home measuring 35 ft in length that offers a generous interior layout and lots of storage space.

Minimaliste's Magnolia V7 is the seventh iteration of the Canadian firm's popular Magnolia tiny house. It's very long and also has an increased width, providing a spacious interior that includes a generous living room and master bedroom.

Canadian couple Heather and Kevin Fritz are turning heads with their very first tiny home build. The home was specifically built for the harsh Canadian climate, which can hit -40 ºC during the winter months.

The latest tiny house by French firm Baluchon serves as residence and workspace to a composer, with the firm managing to squeeze a mini music studio into its living room. The home also boasts an upstairs balcony, which is a rarity in a tiny house.

CoMak Tiny Homes in Pennsylvania has transformed an old mobile hunting cabin into a stunning micro house on wheels. The Mountain is a 150-sq-ft tiny house that boasts star-gazing attributes with a glass roof bedroom and bathroom.

We typically associate Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses with large towable homes, but its Rhode Island Red measures just 14 ft in length and features a simple interior layout that reflects its compact dimensions and its relatively low budget of $38,000.

The Ala Köl tiny house measures just 6 m in length. Such a small space is bound to feel a little cramped inside, so to try and mitigate this, Baluchon has added generous glazing, framing the view and offering lots of natural light inside.

French tiny houses are a tough sell for all but the most dedicated downsizers, but this one by Baluchon is one of the more practical examples. It fits a home for two into 6-m-long proportions and has generous glazing, including a large skylight.