Hermit House: The Open Source DIY Micro-House You Can Design for Free With a Simple App, from SolidSmack Video here.
Living in 150 square feet doesn’t sound appealing to a lot of people, but for ultra-minimalists and those looking to pinch their pennies, downsizing their living space has been a liberating experience according to recent news stories over the past few years. With the rise of such couch-surfing/house rental sites such as AirBnB, micro-houses have also given property owners a way of turning a pretty penny with minimal upfront costs and zoning constraints. More recently, a pair of Dutch designers have created an open source micro-home building kit that allows user to create and download the plans for a micro-home…within a simple desktop app.
A FREE DIY HOUSEBUILDING APP
Perhaps inspired by the sometimes zigzag form of a hermit crab shell, the Hermit House makes use of a zigzag, folding structure floorplan with instructions so easy to understand, it makes an IKEA desk look like a chore. Similar to other micro-home floor plans, the interior is designed as a ‘spacious’ multipurpose open room with that can be modded to however a user sees fit.
Designers Daniel Venneman and Mark van der Net designed the Hermit House for a University project with the motto “Life Unplugged” as an inspiration. Their goal? To give users a simple and affordable option to build a getaway home that would allow them to turn off their screens and ‘get away’ from the plugged-in outside world. Starting with a template that features an open room and a deck, a user has eight different options and various add-ons to choose from for their final design. Once inside of the app, a user can specify the open-structure’s entrance and back height and width, depth, segment size and roof angle….
