A group of six Northwestern students are designing a mobile tiny house this year to blend an efficient use of living space with sustainability.

When William Fan, a McCormick junior, read a September article in The New York Times about the tiny house movement, he began thinking of ways he could start with his own project. He and a group of five McCormick juniors plan on constructing such a house for a two-quarter design class, he said.

Their plan is to construct a livable, operating tiny house, which the group defines as a home 65 to 140 square feet, on a trailer, Fan said.

Fan met with tiny house pioneer Jay Shafer, who agreed to be part of the project, last fall. Shafer, who has been designing and living in his own tiny houses since 1997, also sells them through his business, Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.

According to their midterm presentation, the team’s mission statement is to improve upon the Tumbleweed model by “incorporating their efficient use of space with innovations in the areas of materials, electricity and plumbing.” The group calculates they can save about 35 gallons of water a day with water and energy-saving innovations, including a composting toilet, which converts waste into methane, and an atmospheric water generator.

Kaycee Overcash, a member of the materials team, said she believes that while Shafer was not a member of the design team, he was a valuable resource nonetheless.

“We don’t have any final product that he asked for,” the McCormick junior said. “But he is our inspiration and guide in a way.”

Fan, who works for the plumbing sub-team with McCormick junior Alexandra Letuchy, said he was not hesitant in giving Shafer credit for some of the group’s design.

“Our base tiny house’s design came from Jay’s designs, especially because we are building on a trailer,” Fan said. “We are making many changes, but Tumbleweed is kind of the dirt from where our plant is rooted.”

The students plan to finish the design by the end of Winter Quarter, and construction should take place during the spring.

McCormick juniors Alejandro Sklar and Kimberly Huang are working on the house’s circuitry and power generation system, which runs off solar and wind energy. Sklar said he is not sure what will happen once the project is completed.

“We’re building the house on a trailer to skip past city permit issues,” Sklar said. “But we’re not exactly sure what we’re going to do with it after we build it.”

The group is considering leaving the finished house to NU, finding a buyer or donating it to a museum, Sklar said.

McCormick junior Mert Iseri said the concept of usable space should be part of the discussion on sustainable living.

“We cannot go on living in McMansions,” Iseri said. “Once we limit our space and our ability to store, then our mindset changes on how we look at the world. We want to shift paradigms. In my mind, that is a designer’s nirvana.”[email protected]