Tiny House Fest Returns to Brattleboro June 23, 2018

Updated: Jun 21, 2018

Once each year for the last three years, downtown Brattleboro is home to a vibrant, temporary community of tiny houses. Tiny House Fest Vermont is day-long celebration of compact living spaces and the innovations that make it possible to advance the form. From retrofit busses to trailer-built homes, the tiny houses on display represent and incredible array of design decisions, from the humble to the high end.

Among the most interesting efforts to bring tiny houses into the mainstream are:

Consideration for accessibility; how a tiny house "annex" can provide an affordable alternative for in-law living requirements.
Closed-loop systems; integrating renewable power generation, water collection and grey water use into the systems of a tiny house.
Housing developments; minimize the need for kitchens, bathrooms and other amenities by clustering tiny houses in development communities.

Tiny House Fest Vermont provides attendees with access to more than two dozen custom built tiny houses, as well as a full program of speakers, panel discussions, and workshops. The range of offerings is broad as it is deep, from emerging practice in planning and zoning departments to efficient building designs, cost considerations and the culture of tiny house living. More than anything, the concentrated opportunity to experience a breadth of spaces and the people who build them is exciting.

Another exciting and rewarding aspect of the Tiny House Festival is the popup makerspace, where anyone can try your hand at crafting tiny house models using such an interesting range of tools and materials. While its exciting to think about ways laser cutters, CNC routers, and 3D printers -- typical "makerspace" tools -- could be put to work, it was even more fun to watch young people explore materials and tools and spend hours devising ways to construct them into magical places of imaginary play and living.

And the word is, in 2018 youth will have the opportunity to take their creativity up a notch as design/builders who participate in the construction of parklets for local installation.