Small and Smart

Tour the Winners of Center for Architecture Sarasota's Tiny House Contest

The winning designs are ingenious, modern and affordable.

By Kay Kipling and Susan Burns March 6, 2021 Published in the March-April 2021 issue of Sarasota Magazine

Professional: First Place Winner

Trevor Boyle, HuntonBrady Architects, Orlando | Category: Mobile | Square footage: 270 | Cost: $50,000 for owner-build

Professional: First Place Winner

Inspired by the pandemic, “Breezeway” can be loaded onto a trailer and used for emergency and quarantined housing. Designed for Florida’s hot and humid climate, it uses the dogtrot, an open-air corridor found in Florida Cracker homes, that separates different parts of the home and naturally cools it by drawing in breezes. The elevated canopy, a nod to Paul Rudolph’s 1950s Umbrella House in Sarasota, provides shade and outdoor living space. Solar panels, rainwater collection and recycled materials make the structure sustainable.

Photography by Courtesy Photo

Professional: First Place Winner

The open-air entry vestibule in the middle is a unique feature, meant to be used as a scrub space, so people can wash and drop off dirty clothing before entering the living spaces. The design folds up for easy transport. “I design hospitals and large buildings for a living, so it was nice to dive in and figure out every square inch of this,” says Trevor Boyle. “I kept seeing stories about nurses and frontline workers sequestering from their families, and I thought, ‘What about portable living?’”

Professional: Second-Place Winners

Hannah Boehmer, Sweet Sparkman Architects, Sarasota; David Morrison, Leader Design Studio, Sarasota | Category: Mobile | Square footage: 139 | Cost: $40,000 to $60,000

Professional: Second-Place Winners

When their workdays were done, husband-and-wife architects Hannah Boehmer and David Morrison designed this easily transportable tiny house, perfect for short-term vacationers, temporary workers, remote researchers or the homeless. At a super-tiny 160 square feet, two units can be transported on a flatbed trailer. The design makes use of clever fold-out panels—inspired by Paul Rudolph’s moveable plywood panels on the Walker Guest House—that lift and lock, creating overhangs that provide shade for the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and protection from rain; the panels also make the structure feel larger, lending lightness and openness to the overall design.

Professional: Second-Place Winners

Rooftop panels generate electricity, and rainwater is collected for the shower and toilet. The entire home is constructed with recycled and reclaimed materials. “We’ve framed the space to capture the breeze and the views,” says Boehmer. And because the panels are manually folded, the structure feels alive. “It gives a tangible experience, more palpable and dynamic to live in,” Morrison says.

Professional: Third-Place Winner

Ron Haase, author and retired University of Florida architecture professor, Gainesville | Category: Build in place | Square footage: 640 | Cost: $150,000

Sarasota School of Architecture practitioner Paul Rudolph’s 1953 iconic Umbrella House inspired this extra-roomy tiny house with a separate living room, one bedroom and Pullman kitchen. To create shade and air movement, essential for living in Florida, this design uses coiled wire fabric on a grid of tubular steel to provide an umbrella shade structure as a flexible exoskeleton. The “umbrella” can be configured and expanded to encompass a carport, a new deck, a front porch or a shaded terrace on a side yard—all without “disturbing the living quarters,” according to Haase, whose architect son David provided input. The house is also designed for solar and a roof garden. Haase says the design would work well in a co-housing project—a community of private homes surrounding common space—and is designed to be owner-built. He wouldn’t mind having one. “My son and grandkids could do it and I could stand with a cold drink and say, ‘Lift that there,’” he says.

Professional: Honorable Mention

Gabe Nisula of Halflants & Pichette Architects, Sarasota

Professional: Honorable Mention

Scott Gross, DSDG Architects, Sarasota

Student: First-Place Winner

Mykhailo Mykhailenko, Florida International University | Category: Container design | Square footage: 1 person: (160 square feet); 2 people: (320 square feet) | Cost: In U.S., $25,000 for smaller, $35,000 larger; in China, $30,000

Student: First-Place Winner

Providing privacy in tiny homes is challenging, but this “Flexbox” design separates the con- tainer by purpose: cooking/dining area vs. living/sleeping space. That saves energy, because both areas do not need to be cooled or heated at the same time, and both let natural light in through large sliding doors. Adding a porch between the two parts expands the living space and brings in nature. And because there are two sections, they can be placed in a variety of ways.

Student: First-Place Winner

“My personal experience inspired me,” says Myhailenko. “When I came to the U.S., my wife and I lived in one small room. It was not a problem that the space was ‘small.’ The issue was that there was only one room, so we had to sleep, cook, eat, work, etc. in the same space. I now see how easy it is to improve small spaces. With a smart design, a small space can offer everything that one needs.”

Student: Second-Place Winner

Joshua Jones, University of Florida | Category: Build in place | Square footage: Air conditioned, 160; un-air conditioned, 720 | Cost: Approximately $61,000

Student: Second-Place Winner

An answer to the problem of off-base U.S. military support housing is this build-in-place, 45-foot-high shipping container, which can be organized into a grouping of small-family residential dwellings. Metal shipping containers often end up looking like, well, shipping containers, but this “cottage” has pleasing aesthetics. Rainscreen cladding, strategic openings and shaded porches give definition to the external structure; internally, the container can provide either a single-tier residence with a pretty rooftop overlook or a two-tier residence with rooftop living space. Terrace solar panels can provide energy and shade.

Student: Second-Place Winner

“I was inspired by the idea of designing a customizable module that could be paid off in five years or less, based on localized mean household incomes,” says Jones. He also wanted it to feel “of its place and time, gathering a sense of homecoming for inhabitants and touching on essential themes of hearth, solace and fellowship.”

Student: Third-Place Winner

Jason Henning II, University of South Florida | Category: Mobile | Square footage: 200 | Cost: Depends on available renewable/recycled materials

Student: Third-Place Winner

This mobile tiny home is meant for anyone wishing to experience nature with a newer, safer and more comfortable approach, made to be self-sufficient, with little to no impact on the areas it visits. The HOVE AirBnB (Habitable Operative Vessel Explorer) has two sleeping arrangements, one restroom, a kitchen, a living and dining room and a roof deck. Occupants can change and create space with removable ladders, sliding volumes, walls that fold out to extend internal space and more. “The pandemic inspired the idea,” says Henning. “After being in quarantine for so long, I felt like we all deserved some kind of escape. I imagined myself or a family or friends taking the ride to the Appalachian Mountains, renting a HOVE AirBnB, and just making the best out of our situation.” Its goal? “To be the vessel that reconnects us with nature and those we wish to take on the journey with us,” he says.

Student: Honorable Mention

Peyton Smith, University of Miami

Student: Honorable Mention

Madison Seip, University of Miami

The Center for Architecture Sarasota launched its Tiny House Competition last fall, challenging Florida American Institute of Architects professionals and students to promote “small, flexible, affordable and sustainable alternatives to traditional housing,” using the principles of the Sarasota School of Architecture.

Contestants could design for mobile, shipping container or build-in-place structures. Sustainable design and materials were encouraged, and every design needed to use renewable energy sources for a carbon neutral structure.

The winning designs are ingenious, modern and affordable. Most winners told us that these tiniest of houses are not meant to be permanent homes. Instead, with the pandemic front and center on everyone’s minds, including architects’, many of the winning designs were created as safe travel getaways or as shelter for emergency and frontline workers.

You can view the winning designs at the Center for Architecture Sarasota, 265 S. Orange Ave., April 29-June 17.

Filed under

Center for Architecture Sarasota, Paul Rudolph, Tiny Houses

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