Mobile Tiny Houses - Sustainable and Affordable?

Abstract

The topic of "affordable accommodations" has affected the construction industry and the politics for many years, not least due to sharply rising real estate prices. Building plots in good locations are just as prohibitively expensive for young people as larger apartments in urban areas, especially in big cities. This raises the question: How much does a person need to live? Energy efficiency, sustainability and regionality are as equally important as coziness, which decisively defines the quality of life of the residents. As part of the "klimaaktiv" regional partnership, the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences has carried out several research projects concerning the topic of small sustainable homes. In cooperation with an Upper Austrian prefabricated house company, a building technology concept for an innovative modular construction system was devised. The aim here was the development of an innovative, high-quality and inexpensive modular system that does not exclude increased ecological standards. As part of an interdisciplinary project, a group of students developed an energy self-sufficient cabin for almost every kind of application. Based on extensive research on existing building systems, a variety of topics were examined. The focus here was on mobility, modular assembly, ecological materials, self-sufficiency, energy efficiency and the water cycle. In the end, a single-family house, which considers most of the aforementioned aspects, was built.