Tiny Houses Tackling Big Problems

Posted on March 05, 2015

More than 200 people have already registered to participate in the Second Annual Novem Mason Symposium on Community-Engaged Design. This year’s theme is “Housing the Homeless.”

GREENSBORO, N.C. — More than 200 people have already registered to participate in the Second Annual Novem Mason Symposium on Community-Engaged Design. This year’s theme is “Housing the Homeless.”

A big portion of the symposium is dedicated to how tiny houses could address homelessness in the Triad.

“Homelessness isn’t just happening elsewhere, it’s here in Greensboro and we ignore it generally,” Natalie Johnson, a student fellow at the Center for Community-Engaged Design, said.

The Interior Architecture Department (IARc) at the University of North Carolina Greensboro is hosting the event.

“What we’ve found is a lot of people are interested in this, but there’s not a lot of coordination or communication among the groups” Anna Marshall-Baker, professor and department chair, said.

With everyone in one place, it would help build a strategy.

Johnson is sharing a 3-D framework she created to give people an idea of the space of a tiny house, which is typically 500 square feet or smaller.

“To have a demonstration of the size of this building will be important for everybody to begin to understand how much living space do we need and how can we create quality living space for a small footprint,” Baker said.

The symposium begins on Thursday, March 5. The first day includes a community service event in which people in the community can help finish the exterior of a tiny house.

A complete list of the three day schedule can be found hereuncg.edu/iar/symposium/index.html.

Reposted from Fox 8 News

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