When you're dealing with the kind of small living space offered by a tiny house, maximizing glazing can really help make it feel less cramped. France's Baluchon embraced this approach with its recently completed Ia Orana, and it really opens up the home to light and views.
The Ia Orana (which means Hello in Tahitian) measures just 6 m (19.6 ft) in length – to put that into perspective, US tiny houses usually exceed 9 m (30 ft) – and is based on a double-axle trailer, and is finished in cedar, with an aluminum sloping roof.
Visitors enter the home via large glass doors, which run almost from floor to ceiling and will eventually connect onto a planned deck area outside. The layout is quite simple too, which is always a good idea when there's not much space available.
The living room is furnished with a sofa, a small work desk, and a coffee table, plus there's some storage space in there and a nice high ceiling since there's no loft above it. Next to the living room is a relatively spacious kitchen that has a freezer (but no fridge, at the owner's request), a two-burner propane-powered stove, plus cabinetry. There's also some pull-out steps to make it easier to reach the overhead storage space.
The kitchen connects to the bathroom, which is pretty roomy by French tiny house standards and has a sink, toilet, washer/dryer and a shower measuring 160 x 80 cm (5 x 2.6 ft). Above the bathroom is the home's one bedroom, which is reached by a space-saving removable ladder. This is a typical tiny house bedroom with a low ceiling, and has enough space for a double bed and some shelving.
The Ia Orana has now been installed in the French Alps. We've no word on its price, but Baluchon's tiny houses start at €80,000 (roughly US$92,000).
Source: Baluchon
