In the past, I’ve featured some of Rural Studio’s work before. In fact, it’s one of my favorite stories which dates back to July 2, 2010 and it’s titled Students Design/Build 400 Sq. Ft. Home for $20k.
The school builds tiny and small homes for only $20,000 in materials while providing affordable housing to those in need in the area while students are getting hands on design and construction experience. They also get a chance to give while doing it. On top of all that, recipients for affordable housing get access to night classes for continuing adult education.
But another university group has been focusing on designing small houses with a much, much lower price tag. That’s the Rural Studio at Auburn University.
The Rural Studio is a long-running design-build program that does most of its work in rural Hale County, Alabama. The Rural Studio’s 20K House project has produced a series of houses, twelve so far, so named because they’re designed to be built for $20,000. While some have met this budget and others haven’t, they are all interesting examples of simple but well-designed dwellings.
Take, for example, the Roundwood House. Its designers wanted to explore building applications for “thinnings”, small-diameter timbers that are removed to encourage forest health but are too small to be milled into conventional lumber.
