Biophilic design is a term which refers to the connection between our built environment and the living world around us. It speaks to our innate love of nature, our biosphere and connection with living systems. This tiny home has been designed to incorporate elements of biophilic design and natural building to create a home on wheels which is beautiful, natural and healthy to live in, proving that a tiny house can truly be capable of having a big positive impact. Walker and Heather were inspired to create a home which incorporated their love of nature and passion for living a low-impact lifestyle, and together with builder Ben from Healthy Tiny Homes in Vancouver, they constructed their ideal tiny house which is now situated in their urban back-yard in Portland, Oregon. Adding to the biophilic design elements, the home also includes a living roof where the roofline has been designed to follow the Fibonacci curve and mimic the design of a leaf. To find out more about this tiny house, you can visit Walkers website, where he blogs on the topic of regenerative architecture and tiny house design. http://tinylivingbuildings.com/
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Hi Kelly, thank you for posting this.
Could you and perhaps some of the community here help to clarify something which perplexes me?
While the roof’s leaf inspired line is beautiful, it does not seem to be a safe idea UNLESS steps are taken to actually draw any water/rain, etc. away from the house below.
Why would folks build roofs with the flow directed towards the dwelling, rather than away from the dwelling? Would it be more common sense to ‘go with the flow’ and help it drain away with other shape of roof lines?
I would be concerned that gravity would keep water sitting in those two low areas, thus the greater possibility of leakage into the dwelling.
Thank you for any information which assists in understanding this.
I basically agree with you about how roof designs should shed water away from the structure. I am not a fan of flat roofs for this reason. However, with this particular design those low swales are designed to funnel water down to the low spot at the eave, where there is a scupper and drain pipe that directs the water to a specific catch basin on the ground. This is not apparent unless you study the view of the roof from above, where it shows that the opposite side of the roof is actually straight and creates a downward slope to those pipe.
Thanks for educating me.
I was hoping that there was some form of water diversion and containment.