The small house (or tiny house) movement promotes smaller homes and simplified living, which has excellent potential for making housing more sustainable. Shafer built his first small house in 1999 and lived in it for five years, then used his experience to write his first book, which popularised the idea of small houses in the US. Shafer built his house on wheels to avoid planning restrictions and so that he could be mobile. This book is an updated version of the first book and starts with Shafer taking the reader through his builds, all illustrated with photographs. The second part of the book challenges us to think about what makes a good home, suggesting that small houses can meet our needs and keep us content while also considering the sustainability issues of big homes. Part Three gets into the technical details of building a small house, again illustrated with photos. The portfolio of designs in the final part of the book is fascinating and could provide a superb springboard for a project where students design their own tiny house. What can we achieve when we think small?

How did we come to desire to live in ‘autopia’ and why isn’t it working? Urry’s team from the Liveable Cities Project start by unpicking these questions, then considers how ‘cracks in the system’ could be exploited to work towards having car-free cities. A wide range of examples are used to illustrate the car-free scenario, from the anti-roads movement of the 1990s in the UK to restrictions to parking in Freiburg and including Sunday street closures in Colombian cities such as Bogota. The city of Birmingham is used to investigate the potential of and barriers to becoming a car-free city, including reference to West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority’s Strategic Transport Plan. The ‘redesign’ workshops included could easily be replicated in a classroom concerning students’ own area or an area they are studying – they could even get out the modelling dough, as Group 1 does in the book! 

Tiny houses may not take up much physical space, but do we have the mindset to embrace them in the UK? This article suggests that we do, using examples of tiny houses in Northumberland, Bristol and Scotland to support the proposal that tiny houses are ‘perfect for now’. As D’Silva says, ‘Economical, portable, eco-friendly, community-minded, mortgage-free – what's not to like?’ However, there are obstacles to overcome, including the cost of land to site the tiny house and complications with planning permission. Despite these limitations, the examples included show that tiny houses can succeed and be the basis of small communities. This article could form the stimulus for a web investigation into how the projects in Bristol and Edinburgh are faring. Students could also consider whether this approach to regeneration is more sustainable than the large-scale regeneration schemes we often see in city centres.

The small house movement and the idea of ‘van life’ may have taken off in the US, but is this a good thing? The previous readings suggest that it is, but this book (and film) explores the pressures forcing people to move into vans and the challenges they face, as well as celebrating the simplicity and sometimes beauty of their lives. The book’s focus is the plight of older people in the US who find themselves unable to pay their bills and so move into ‘wheel estate’. These ‘nomads’ travel around the country from job to job, working at campsites, warehouses and farms, unable to afford retirement. Bruder shows admiration for the resilience of the people she writes about and despair at the inequalities in society which force them into this lifestyle ‘choice’. While small houses and ‘van life’ may be exciting for some, is it sustainable to have a society where people are being forced to live this way?

The Mexico City cable car system covers about 3 miles with seven stations and the ticket prices make it afforbale to travel for all inhabitants.