With “McMansions” increasingly giving way to “tiny” houses, the desire to downsize and be more ecologically and economically prudent is a concept many are beginning to embrace. Focusing on dwelling spaces all under 1,000 square feet, TINY HOUSES (Rizzoli, April 2009) by Mimi Zeiger aims to challenge readers to take a look at their own homes and consider how much space they actively use. Ranging from tree houses to floating houses, TINY HOUSES features an international collection of over thirty modular and prefab homes, each one embodying “microgreen living”, defined as the creation of tiny homes where people challenge themselves to live “greener” lives. By using a thoughtful application of green living principles, renewable resources for construction, and clever ingenuity, these homes exemplify sustainable living at its best.

More than 1,000 photos, along with stories and interviews follow the "tiny house" movement which is currently going on among people who have chosen to scale back in the 21st century. Original.

"From the publishers of a popular series of building books comes Small Homes, which is highly relevant for these times. Getting smaller, rather than larger. Some 75 builders share their knowledge of building and design, with artistic, practical, and/or economical homes in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Spain, New Zealand and Lithuania. This is the seventh in a series of highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The series, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Each of these books has over 1,000 photos, and each 2-page spread is carefully laid out with respect to balance of graphics and clarity of information. A running theme with them is that people have been inspired by one book to build their own home, and this will be included in a subsequent book. For example, many of the homes in Home Work were inspired by Shelter. And so on. The underlying theme with Shelter's books, which has continued for over 40 years, is that it's possible for you to create your own home with your own hands, using natural materials. Some of these homes are in the country, some in small towns, and some in large cities"--

Profiles seventeen small buildings, some used as permanent housing, some as temporary accommodations, and some as workplaces, including Thoreau's cabin and an ice fishing shanty, and provides structural diagrams and plans.

Shelter is many things - a visually dynamic, oversized compendium of organic architecture past and present; a how-to book that includes over 1,250 illustrations; and a Whole Earth Catalog-type sourcebook for living in harmony with the earth by using every conceivable material. First published in 1973, Shelter remains a source of inspiration and invention. Including the nuts-and-bolts aspects of building, the book covers such topics as dwellings from Iron Age huts to Bedouin tents to Togo's tin-and-thatch houses; nomadic shelters from tipis to "housecars"; and domes, dome cities, sod iglus, and even treehouses. The authors recount personal stories about alternative dwellings that illustrate sensible solutions to problems associated with using materials found in the environment - with fascinating, often surprising results.

If you dream of living in a tiny house, or creating a getaway in the backwoods or your backyard, you’ll love this gorgeous collection of creative and inspiring ideas for tiny houses, cabins, forts, studios, and other microshelters. Created by a wide array of builders and designers around the United States and beyond, these 59 unique and innovative structures show you the limits of what is possible. Each is displayed in full-color photographs accompanied by commentary by the author. In addition, Diedricksen includes six sets of building plans by leading designers to help you get started on a microshelter of your own. You’ll also find guidelines on building with recycled and salvaged materials, plus techniques for making your small space comfortable and easy to inhabit.

Looking at tiny homes as a model for providing low-income housing, Tiny Homes in a Big City chronicles the building of Cass Community Social Services' tiny house community in Detroit, Michigan.