Are ‘tiny homes’ good for the environment? Focus on materials, land-use, energy, and carbon footprint

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Access rights

openAccess

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2024-01-03

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

25
698-722

Series

JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE, Volume 28, issue 5

Abstract

Material consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are rising in building stocks. At the same time, the floor area of residential buildings per capita has been increasing. New houses can be very energy efficient but are often built from energy and emission-intensive materials. We investigated the potential of tiny homes for reducing material use, energy consumption, and associated emissions, as well as land use. For this study, comparative life cycle assessments and energy simulations were conducted on tiny homes, detached houses, and apartments in the context of Finland, Northern Europe. The results allow comparison between different building types. The studied tiny homes had lower energy consumption and carbon footprints than the reference buildings when comparing these indicators per capita or per building. However, when using floor area as a unit of comparison, the tiny homes perform worse. When looking at land use efficiency, tiny homes and apartment blocks performed better than detached houses. We conclude that, as tiny homes are strongly related to individual lifestyles, their overall relevance for lowering environmental impacts should be compared in relation to consumption habits and use of public services. Furthermore, the environmental benefits of tiny homes need to be interpreted in a broader sustainability context, especially in relation to indicators of social and economic sustainability.

Description

Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Other note

Citation

Kuittinen, M, Ruuska, K, Viriyaroj, B & Zubillaga, L 2024, ' Are ‘tiny homes’ good for the environment? Focus on materials, land-use, energy, and carbon footprint ', Journal of Architecture, vol. 28, no. 5, pp. 698-722 . https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2023.2280849