PRETTY SMALL

Tiny homes have become a global trend in recent years, and a growing bunch of South Africans are joining the movement with gusto. From the North West to the Western Cape, homeowners are opting for the simplicity of smaller spaces.

- CHRISTI NORTIER

It started out as an experiment. Using the existing footprint of her house, furniture designer Yulande Roxburgh managed to fit a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen within the original 9x3m boundary of her former bedroom and dressing room. Her three kids each got their own open-plan pod of 2x2m, and every room had floor-to-ceiling windows and storage cleverly tucked into forgotten nooks and crannies. A decade later, Yulande is still hooked on her tiny home – so much so that she makes them for others now, too.

But why would anyone do it? ‘Living tiny is the pursuit of minimalism,’ explains Yulande. And it’s a sentiment shared by the ever-growing global ‘tiny-home movement’, a collective of homeowners who have decided to scale back the size of their homes and make a conscious effort to live with less.

The movement has inspired, and benefitted from, a slew of TV productions such as Tiny House Nation, Tiny House Hunters and Tiny House, Big Living, all of which show how clever compact design can simplify life. It has also become a social media sensation, with more than 1.5 million tags on Instagram. YouTube has 3 000-plus channels dedicated to tiny-home living – and this number is growing by the day.

Tiny-home hotspots can be found mostly in the US, Australia and New Zealand, but South Africa has its fair share of tiny-home fans and builders, each with their own reasons for wanting to live more simply.