Speakers and Exhibitors from the Frome Tiny Homes Event, March 2020 – now rescheduled for Sunday 21st March 2021
Index
- Agile Homes
- Bayhaus
- Chisel & Grain
- Ecomotive
- FabHab
- Goddess Organising
- Hacienda Off-Grid Tiny Homes
- Hut Builder UK
- Natural Born Builders
- NaviHo
- Robin Howell
- Passivhaus Homes
- Stop Digging Southwest
- TinyEcoHomes UK
- Tiny Houses Community Bristol
- Tom Lear
- Wessex Community Assets
- Windy Smithy
1. Agile Homes
Spring into Agile Action
Tel: 0117 251 0199
Agile Homes is an architect-led company in Bristol whose aim is to create a people-centred housing model that radically changes the housing market.
Agile is responsible for designing the TAM (Transportable Accommodation Module), a 37 square-metre one-bedroom home that has a 60-year design life, complies with Building Regulations, fits within the requirements of the Caravan Act and Chattel Law, and can be easily installed in difficult-to-access and micro sites including on the top of buildings. Locally-made from natural renewable materials such as timber and straw, TAMs are super-insulated to meet PassivHaus levels of energy efficiency. In addition to their low carbon energy performance – which will help offset fuel poverty – each TAM banks and stores 27 tons of atmospheric CO2. You can take a virtual tour of a TAM on the Agile website with CEO Craig White.
Each TAM currently costs just under £80,000 and Agile are now developing a Lease Finance programme so that potential homeowners don’t need to secure a mortgage and can either lease hire or lease purchase their home.
2. Bayhous
www.bayhous.com
Josh@greentracearchitect.co.uk
Bayhous wants to help people design and build their own tiny spaces. The Bayhous system is a flat pack, modular kit-of-parts that is easy to build, adaptable, transportable and dismantlable.
Design it
The system allows incredible flexibility of design. The Bayhous website enables users to design their own space by choosing and arranging ‘Bays’. From kitchen bay, studio bay, play bay, meeting bay, bed bay, bike bay, dining bay, utility bay, and so on. This can produce limitless options and Bays can also be changed later by easily swapping out furniture parts for others.
Build it
Once designed and ordered, a Bayhous can then be assembled from an entirely digitally fabricated kit of plywood parts. The system is so simple that a relatively un-skilled couple could build one outside over a long weekend. Users will not need to measure or cut anything, drill any holes, or mix or plaster. They will only need a screwdriver, an alan key, and a mallet.
Love it
Joss says: “I lived in my own Bayhous for 3 years and loved it. If you would like to know more, please get in contact.”
3. Chisel & Grain/ EdSpace
Chisel & Grain is a small carpentry and building business based in Frome. We specialise in creating small bespoke living and working spaces, including cabins, treehouses and shepherds hut conversions. From the outset we have strived to be reliable, trustworthy and hard-working and are pleased to be known for developing positive and lasting relationships with our clients.
For the last few years we have been manufacturing and installing Edspaces: uniquely designed cabin spaces that can be used as Tiny Houses, extra room for visitors, your office, studio or workshop. The clever design of the Edspace, developed by local Frome architects and students from Edventure: Frome, means it is built in flatpack form, making delivery easy and possible to sites with difficult access. Installation is quick (usually just one day) because of the Edspace’s modular construction and clip fastening method. If you have a project in mind, we’d love to hear from you!
4. Ecomotive
0117 924 1263
Ecomotive is a workers’ co-operative which grew out of the 40-home Ashley Vale eco self build project in Bristol, and whose mission is to help people create their own amazing homes and communities. It offers professional advice, support, training, and project mentoring to inspire and support community-led housing, self-build, and ecological housing solutions. Ecomotive has also developed a pop-up modular home build space called SNUG, which was 1st Prize Winner in Grand Design’s Self Build on a Shoestring.
As well as enabling self and custom build developments, Ecomotive acts as an agent for change through:
- Inspiring the grass roots: helping people work out the best solution for their community
- Informing the professional sector: demonstrating the benefits of community-involved development
- Connecting self builders with local councils: letting local authorities know detailed evidence of interest in self and custom build in their area
Check out the link below, if you would like to see our new 20min film on community led housing based on interviews we made across N. America last summer.
5. FabHab
www.fab-hab.co.uk
hello@fab-hab.co.uk
Instagram account is @fabhab_project (content coming soon!)
The FAB-HAB Project is in its early stages, and our aim is to build a prototype in 2020. We have initial permission, from the site owner, to build the prototype at a business park in Oxfordshire, and are finalising the design and aiming to submit a planning application in the spring. We were hoping to gather valuable feedback at the Frome Tiny Homes event, but the current situation has curtailed all the best laid plans!
FAB-HAB is a tiny homes building concept, based on an open-source design system called WikiHouse. The aims of the FAB-HAB Project are:
- To meet the need for well-designed, space efficient, affordable homes
- To create beautiful, desirable buildings with no compromise on design or material quality
- To be easy, and inexpensive, for anyone to build
- To create a ‘climate positive’ solution:
- Low-carbon, sustainable materials
- High energy efficiency
- Designed to be fit for the future, to ensure a comfortable indoor environment throughout the building’s life
6. Goddess Organising
www.goddessorganising.co.uk
Tel: 07775 438344
Find us on Facebook @goddessorganising
& instagram: goddess_domestic_organising
Goddess Organising was born in Frome in 2018 out of the sheer joy and passion Chloe has for everything that can be organised. She believes that everything should have a ‘Home’ and to only hold on to the things that are truly loved and useful in our lives.
With Goddess Organising you receive a professional organising and de-cluttering service, with personal care, sensitive support and the dedication to help you through what can sometimes be a difficult process. With Chloe’s attention to detail, and with your well being in mind, she will work alongside you in creating the vision you have for your home. Whether you simply want to live “smaller”, to be more organised or need help making the house you have “work” for you, Goddess Organising is here and can help you find the domestic calm you truly deserve.
7. Hacienda Off-grid Tiny Homes
www.haciendaoffgridtinyhomes.home.blog
A new Somerset-based sustainable buildings and tiny homes venue, offering courses, visits and information about off-grid living and recycled timber framing.
8. Hut Builder UK
www.hutbuilder.co.uk
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @hutbuilderuk
Tel: 07805 166412
Hut Builder specialises in bespoke projects including tiny homes, shepherd’s huts, glamping pods and cabins. We enjoy working with our clients to create a truly unique small space that perfectly suits their requirements, whether it’s that extra space at home, somewhere for friends and family to stay or a full time tiny home. We offer both mains and off-grid installations and being a HETAS registered installer we can also offer wood-burning stove installations and servicing.
9. Natural Born Builders
www.naturalbornbuilders.net
Eduoard writes: “Tiny Homes are not my expertise but eco-friendly construction, strawbales, carpentry and clay are. I am a French doctor of astrophysics, and I am also a collapsologue and a longtime partisan of de-growth. Needless to say I am a big fan of Tiny Homes and the voluntary simplicity that goes with it.
Recently based in Frome, I design and build eco-friendly houses with people, not for people, essentially with self-builders in an atmosphere of trust and honesty. My first task is to dissuade you from building at all because the least-damaging building to the environment is the one you do not need to build. If I fail, then I’ll work with you to make it as small as possible, locally sourced, poor in embodied energy, rich with insulation, beautiful… Taking into account your resources (money, time, will, skills…), we will lay out your ideas together and draw a realistic plan. From minimal guidance to full assistance, you keep control of the process and I deliver to your needs with efficiency.
Warning: the journey of building your house is not just about the material process nor the result product. Even when tiny, it can be exhausting, stressful, difficult, painful at times, rewarding, full of meaning, eventually transformative. It is a human experience through which we can learn about ourselves and the world we live in.”
10. NaviHo
Naviho is a supplier of both tiny houses and tiny house trailers based in the west country. As well as sales, it can organise the rental of tiny houses for short or long periods, and is looking into acquiring land where pitches can be rented out for tiny house accommodation. At present its focus is on providing isolation pods for rent or purchase during the pandemic.
NaviHo is a brand owned and operated by HM-D, a design & engineering company focused on producing products, services, processes and systems for the betterment of people and the planet. Solving socio-economic and environmental issues are at the heart of everything HM-D does, and NaviHo is no exception. NaviHo is the combination of the words “Navigable” and “Home”, and was conceptualised in order to bridge the ever-increasing gap first-time buyers must navigate in order to place their first step on the housing ladder.
11. Robin Howell
Robin writes: “Forty years ago I began repairing old buildings for a living until I retired in 2006. Since then I have become a serial volunteer, renovating our local village hall with straw bales and sheep fleece, building a little visitor centre out of Argos catalogues and old guttering at the Red Brick in Glastonbury, and overseeing the completion of the Red Brick initial project. I then built a classroom at Paddington Farm Trust out of old pallets and other recycled stuff, and went on to manage a pilot project to convert two containers to warm dry homes to show local authorities that it could be done.”
“I am currently beginning the construction of a 100 foot Peruvian style rope bridge between the Zigzag and Red Brick in Glastonbury. It’s a curtain raiser for the renovation of Building C for which we can make no economic case and have little money – but it has to be done, so we are doing it!”
12. Passivhaus Homes Ltd.
Website: www.phhomes.co.uk
E-mail: info@phhomes.co.uk
Tel: 0345 2571500
Passivhaus Homes specialise in sustainable housing, delivering low carbon new housing, including net zero carbon. We use the Passivhaus standard, ensuring low operational energy, and timber frame with natural insulation to radically reduce embodied carbon, and have developed a system called PH15, which is optimised to make building very simple, as well as ensuring an economic cost point.
We are excited by the tiny house movement, and keen to offer a low -cost housing solution that sits lightly on the earth and that is a well-designed and environmentally excellent home option. We have a great track record already for delivering Passivhaus certified homes, including the Passivhaus Plus standard. Should enlightened councils offer land use at affordable rates, then we can deliver an exciting housing solution for many people.
PH15 is based on a lightweight I-joist frame that is precision cut in a factory, making it very quick and easy to erect, and good for tricky sites too. PH15 includes training on erection, all that is needed is basic carpentry skill. Passivhaus Homes have now developed a TINY PH15, of which a prototype section will be available to view at the National Self Build and Renovation Centre in Swindon by the end of 2020.
13. Stop Digging South West
www.stop-digging.co.uk
www.facebook.com/stopdiggingsw
Ground screw, earth screw, screw anchor, earth anchor or pier anchor – this simple and effective foundation has many names. Stop Digging’s ground screw works the same way as a concrete post or pier block, whilst outperforming it across the board. With our helical screws you can quickly and easily set out a stable foundation and begin construction immediately.
Our ground screw is the best solution for supporting wooden decks, sheds, greenhouses, conservatories, carports or other structures such as flagpoles, signs or fences. Stop Digging offers a range of screws in different models and sizes to cater to whatever building project you have in mind, and on whatever terrain. Whether it is soft or hard ground, our screws are fully functional when sunk and there is no need to waste time waiting for wet concrete to set. Stop digging with Stop Digging!
14. Tiny eco Homes UK
www.tinyecohomesuk.com
https://m.facebook.com/tinyecohomesukltd
Tel: 01388 517711
Tiny eco homes UK is the UK’s leading manufacturer and pioneers of road towable tiny homes. Designed for full time living all homes are fully custom built and can be fully equipped for off grid living. Renowned for their service and quality Tiny eco homes UK have built more road towable homes than all the other manufacturers combined. As well as building road towable tiny homes, the team regularly travels throughout the UK and Europe building permanent tiny homes on site/
After founder Chris March set the standard for road towable tiny homes he has now started the long awaited development of a 25-acre site located in County Durham where x30 luxury tiny eco homes will be constructed. With groundwork set to start late summer 2020 construction on the first homes will start in 2021 followed by a launch event later that year.
15. Tiny Houses Community Bristol
www.tinyhousecommunitybristol.org
tinyhousecommunitybristol@gmail.com
The Tiny House Community Bristol was set up in 2017 and now has over 2000 supporters worldwide. Founder and Director Rachel Butler gave an inspiring talk at Frome Town Hall in December 2019 about the group’s work and plans. “The tiny house movement promotes financial prudence, eco-friendly choices, shared community experiences, and a shift in consumerism-driven mind sets” says Rachel. “We are a self governing group of like-minded people from Bristol and beyond working together to challenge the crippling condition of the housing market and provide a creative, ethical, community-led alternative.”
Working with the support of Bristol Community Land Trust, Bristol City Council, and Bioregional, the group’s goal is to create affordable, environmentally responsible, socially responsive, economically sustainable, enterprising, inspiring, and replicable communities on developments of approximately 32 plots per hectare. There will be a mix of micro, tiny & small houses, in which the smaller living space of the properties is offset against significantly sized shared communal areas. Communities will be interconnected, multi-generational and co-operative, informed by the characteristics of co-housing. They also aim to be self-supporting and strong through their diversity and inclusivity, offering a vision to Bristol, the United Kingdom and the world of a more responsible way of living.
16. Tom Lear
Instagram: Tomtinyhome
Tom Lear is based in Bristol and began building his own tiny house at the age of 17. It is constructed almost entirely from recycled materials and cost him £6000. Now 20 years old, he is living debt free in his very own home. In January 2020, Tom’s tiny house was featured on youtube in Bryce Langston’s series Living Big in a Tiny House where it has received nearly 5 million views.
17. Wessex Community Assets
Wessex Community Assets is a community benefit society based in Glastonbury whose overall aim is to help communities to become more resilient through access to land and finance. WCA supports communities with technical advice and mentoring to develop and take on community owned assets; carries out research in the sector; supports communities to select the most appropriate legal form (specialising in community benefit societies); and advises on raising finance through issuing community shares for projects with social benefit.
Wessex Community Assets is currently supporting the development of tiny houses in two ways:
- Through the Wessex Community Housing Hub it is supporting community led housing groups in Dorset and Somerset that wish to develop a tiny house project. The emphasis should be on affordable dwellings for people on low incomes, and affordability in perpetuity. For example, a community land trust could lease land to a cooperative which develops the tiny houses and rents them to members.
- Wessex Community Assets will be running two initial tiny house training programmes – hopefully in July and September 2020. These will be week-long courses in West Dorset, with a small number of residential places available. They are part-funded by a charitable foundation and the Education and Skills Funding Agency, and the resulting tiny house will be donated to a homelessness charity in Mendip. WCA are working with a cooperative in Berlin (the Tiny Collective) and the architects Assemble to prototype a design using local sustainable materials. For further information, please contact Tim Crabtree: tim.crabtree@wessexca.co.uk
18. Windy Smithy
www.windysmithy.co.uk
At the Windy Smithy we have been making low impact woodburners for small spaces since 2000. These efficient lightweight burners are hand made in a small workshop in Devon and we have tested them all in our various living spaces over the years.
Our woodburners can be found all over the globe, in spaces ranging from Benders to Treehouses and from 50 quid trailers to Tiny Homes. We now live offgrid in the woods, and can advise on many aspects of low-impact and off-grid living, as well as life on the road, where we have spent most of our adult lives. We also make tools for traditional timber frame carpenters and logbuilders, and have also built and converted several caravans and living vehicles. We can advise on and will supply woodburner and flue kits for small spaces requiring a heat source of up to 5 KW (about the size of a static caravan).
Please see our website or get in touch for further information.