As 2020 comes to a close, we present our pick of the best, most innovative, and most unusual tiny houses we've seen this year. The towable homes we've chosen run the gamut from a supersized tiny house that sleeps eight people to an unusual compact model based on an airplane fuselage.
Our selection of the best tiny houses of 2020 reflects the sheer breadth of styles and ideas present in the small living movement and contains everything from practical tiny houses on wheels to oddball models that don't really fit the traditional definition of a tiny house. In no particular order, these are the small spaces that have caught our eye during 2020, and be sure to head to the gallery to see more of each.
Bitser Tiny House - Build Tiny
Build Tiny looked at all the bits and pieces of surplus materials it had lying around from years of custom tiny house projects and the Kiwi firm decided to do something useful with them. That something turned out to be the Bitser Tiny House.
Measuring 6 m (roughly 20 ft) in length, the Bitser is powered by a standard RV-style hookup but is also wired ready to accept solar panels. The interior looks snug but comfortable and consists of a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and one upstairs bedroom that's reached by storage-integrated staircase.
Tiny House Nano - Baluchon
The overall size of tiny houses has been slowly increasing in recent years, but for those interested in a tiny house that is still actually tiny, Baluchon's Tiny House Nano definitely fits the bill.
Measuring a mere 3.3 m (10.8 ft) in length, the French dwelling is one of the smaller tiny houses we've seen in recent years and its interior is probably best suited as a weekender or guest house. It features a small desk area which doubles up as a dining table, with a sofa bed and a kitchenette nearby, plus a small bathroom with a toilet and shower. A ladder leads up to its only sleeping area.
Timberwolf 24' Tiny House - Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses
The Timberwolf 24' Tiny House by Colorado's Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses measures 24 ft (7.3 m) long and sports the firm's trademark rustic exterior styling. A fold-down deck and a fold-up awning are attached to the exterior and provide extra outdoor living space.
The interior features a living room with large u-shaped sofa and an elevator bed platform operated with a switch. Elsewhere is a kitchen, bathroom, and upstairs bedroom. It runs off-the-grid with solar panels and water tanks, and can also withstand harsh winter weather thanks to a combination of good insulation, a wood-burning stove, mini-split air-con unit, and a gas-powered furnace.
Magnolia V6 - Minimaliste
Minimaliste's latest version of its popular Magnolia tiny house measures a total length of 36.5 ft (11.1 m). Its interior includes a large living area, with a well-stocked kitchen that has a dishwasher and a massive fridge/freezer.
The Magnolia V6 boasts a large downstairs bedroom with plenty of headroom to stand up straight in, as well as a secondary loft bedroom. It's wired for a standard RV-style hookup but can also run from a generator in case of outages. Additionally, like all of the Canadian firm's models, this hardy home is built to withstand extremes in temperature and can take a harsh winter in its stride.
Aero Tiny House - Tiny House Guys
Small living firm The Tiny House Guys definitely has a point when it calls its Aero Tiny House Australia's most unique tiny house. The off-grid home is made from a repurposed airplane fuselage section previously used for cabin crew training, that's placed on a standard tiny house towable trailer.
It measures 12 sq m (130 sq ft) and is accessed by a fully operational aircraft door. The interior retains some nice original touches like the overhead lockers, though thankfully a real bathroom has been installed in place of those cramped airplane toilets. There's also a deck, dining area, and kitchenette, as well as a sofa bed. It gets power from a solar panel array and has a water tank and pump system mounted under the floor.
Solo 01 - The Billboards Collective
Admittedly, there are very few people who would want to actually live in the Solo 01, but it's a fascinating example of the ingenuity seen in the tiny house movement. Based on a rickshaw with a removable living area made from scrap metal, it measures just 6 x 6 ft (1.8 x 1.8 m).
Notwithstanding its humble dimensions, Indian designer The Billboards Collective has somehow managed to squeeze in storage space, a kitchenette, a toilet, and even a tiny bathtub, while the mezzanine area hosts a bed and a laptop table. The exterior has a small drop-down porch and the rooftop terrace is accessed by ladder.
Traveler's Paradise - Mint Tiny House Company
The Traveler's Paradise, by Canada's Mint Tiny House Company, is at the opposite end of the tiny house scale from Baluchon's Nano, and is a tiny house that's tiny in name only. Measuring an incredible 41 ft (12.5 m) in length, the home sleeps up to eight people.
So how do you fit eight people into a towable home? Well, two have to rough it on a sofa bed, while another two get to enjoy the master bedroom, which is downstairs and has lots of headroom to stand upright and walk around. The remaining four share the tiny house's two loft-style bedrooms. The home also has a large kitchen, living room, and just one bathroom for everyone to share.
Bedouin Tree Shed - Daniel Holloway
Daniel Holloway's Bedouin Tree Shed was an eight-year labor of love and won him the prestigious Cuprinol Shed of the Year competition in the UK.
It began life as a conventional garden shed but grew over the years to include multiple structures based around two living trees in Holloway's garden. Its interior includes souvenirs from his extensive travels in Africa, vintage etchings, and finely carved ancient hardwood Indian columns. A wood-burning stove provides warmth and its furniture was sourced from reclamation yards and bits and pieces people had thrown out.
Space by Ecocapsule - Ecocapsule
The Ecocapsule has been around in various forms for years now but with the Space by Ecocapsule, as it's officially named, the novel egg-shaped tiny house gets rebooted with an updated design.
It measures 4.67 x 2.2 m (15 x 7.2 ft) and has 8.2 sq m (88 sq ft) of floorspace inside, with a distinctive fiberglass shell covering a steel frame. The interior is laid out in just one room with flooring and storage space as standard, with optional extras like a bed, air-conditioning, additional furniture, and a bathroom. It gets power from a solar panel array mounted on a small telescopic pole that's connected to batteries and has a rainwater collection system too.
GoSun Dream - GoSun
GoSun is best known for its line of solar ovens and other neat outdoor gear, but the firm has moved into the small living movement with a new tiny house named the GoSun Dream.
The tiny house measures a total length of 22 ft (6.7 m) and sports an optional electric awning that offers shade outside. The interior maximizes the compact space available with a living room that contains a u-shaped bench seat and table that can be turned into a bed. There's also an elevating bed that lowers down with the flick of a switch when it's time to hit the sack. Other notable features in this one include its solar panels and water tanks, allowing it to run fully off-the-grid.
