(energetic surfer music)
Hawaii.
Land of big surf,
massive volcanic mountain ranges,
and tiny houses on wheels?
Graham Hill is an innovative designer
whose passion for green technology
has led him to a remote oceanfront plot
on the island of Maui
where he believes this little shed could be a blueprint
for modern sustainable home design.
(hammering)
So, this is a tiny, tiny house.
It's only about eight feet by 14 feet,
85 square feet on the inside,
and so we have to be really smart
with every single thing we do with it.
The road to this tropical tiny house
began years ago in New York City.
Hey, I'm Graham Hill.
We think that you can live large in small spaces.
So, come on.
After founding the environmental website
Treehugger.com, Graham sold it and began his next venture.
My company's called Life Edited.
We believe that, done right, less can truly equal more.
He wanted to see if it was possible
to live small without skimping on luxury touches.
In the last 50, 60 years, we've supersized ourselves.
And so, we have big houses and big cars
and we have a larger environmental footprint,
and so I think there's a real yearning in our society
to something simpler.
Graham put his less-is-more philosophy
to the test by building a prototype apartment
packed with space-saving innovations
like transforming furniture and reconfigurable walls.
It was 420 square feet
to a functionality of probably an apartment twice its size.
The apartment was just the first step.
Graham dreamed of building an entire house,
not just eco-friendly but completely off the grid.
And he wanted to build it
on his favorite corner of paradise.
Maui is just such a beautiful weather all the time.
In tropical environments,
we could live in such simple but luxurious ways.
The result was a breathtaking
1,000-square-foot house
with many of the same transforming features
as his prototype apartment.
Graham proved he could live in Hawaii
without electric or water hookups,
sustainably, and in style.
But his big dreams were still focused on something smaller,
much, much smaller.
It's gonna be a very comfortable place to live.
And so, 85 square feet, but it has tons of functionality
and is, of course, gonna be a much lower footprint.
(tools whining)
The plan is to tear out
much of the existing construction--
Ew!
Saving only the original trailer base,
the wood framing, ceiling, and roof.
Oh.
Oh, come.
There are wasp nests.
Ew! Yeah, I know.
See, a little bit of a surprise is all these wasps.
Holy moly, there's a colony of them there.
There's no one home.
Maybe they'll come back later. (laughing)
(energetic surfer music)
One last wall.
(screaming)
After the frenzy of destruction,
the old materials are off
to be donated to Habitat for Humanity.
And the small structure is ready
for its modern off-the-grid transformation.
There's gonna be a huge window here, a 48-by-48,
and you're gonna have amazing view here,
an amazing view here.
So, we hopefully can get six, seven, maybe eight people--
Whoa! But, I think, (laughing)
I think six, which is pretty amazing--
Challenging. In 85 square feet.
So, the main mission is could we build something
that was fairly low cost, minimal footprint,
very, very low footprint, but also great lifestyles?
(light easygoing music)
Over the next few weeks,
Graham and his small construction team
sweat under the baking Hawaiian sun,
framing the house and building custom fixtures.
With such a small square footage,
they found they could afford
high-end materials and luxury finishes
that would cost a fortune in a larger house.
And with the assembly of a large roof panel,
the off-the-grid innovations start to come into focus.
We just did a very simple two-by-four frame,
nothing expensive nor complicated.
Just a light frame.
And that acts as a shade for the overall structure,
it'll collect water for us for the water catchment.
In addition to shade and water,
the roof panel also supplies electricity
with a bank of next-generation solar panels
designed by Graham's friend
and off-the-grid technology expert David Sellers.
The off-grid world is actually exploding.
The technology is there.
It's a lot easier to be off-grid in Hawaii, obviously,
but you can do it anywhere.
The first step is with solar panels.
If everyone were to get solar panels on their houses,
we'd have to figure out what we would need to do
with all that power.
And the neat part about them
is that they are flexible and large.
So, we got 12 panels here
and we just designed the roof to fit them exactly,
and they're literally flexible.
So, we've laid them out and they're ready to install.
12 of these panels weighs just as much
as one typical solar panel
and they're actually more cost-effective too.
And the electric panels
aren't the only solar tech on the roof.
It takes a lot of electricity to heat water,
but we get free heat from the sun.
So, these are little micro solar collectors.
So, this'll provide all the hot water that it needs.
So, no moving parts, no electrical parts, really.
It all just works with the heat of the sun.
You're gonna have more hot water
than you know what to do with.
Free electricity and heat from the sun
and free water from the clouds,
scrubbed clean by an elaborate filtration system.
That water, it gets collected into the gutter
at the bottom of the solar array
and then it goes over into its first stage of filtration
to get big leaves and sticks and debris like that out of it.
So, we have other contaminants that are present on the roof,
like dust and pollen
and maybe some bird poop every now and again.
So, the way that we get rid of that
is it enters the first flush filter.
And what the first flush filter is,
we actually let the rainwater wash the roof;
it does the work for us.
So, we take the first bit of water
that comes off of the roof
and we don't put that in the tank.
We put that aside.
And that drains out really slowly,
and then cleaner water actually enters the tank.
(light ambient music)
That's when we're gonna go into
our first stage of water filtration.
Then our next is charged carbon.
And then the final stage is gonna be our UV filter.
So, we're actually providing better water quality
than what you can typically get
from your municipality or your water service.
Pressure tank, water pump,
then over here is gonna be our energy system.
So, we've condensed the energy system,
which usually takes up a lotta space,
into a really small cube.
So, we're putting out 220 volts of power at 3,600 watts,
and so we can power anything that they need:
a full-size stove if you want, plenty of lighting,
plenty of charging cell phones and computers.
There's also a smartphone link.
So, there's an app where we can actually see that
from anywhere, see what's going on with the battery,
how much power's being consumed, how much PV's coming in.
So, this is super, super tricked out.
I'm extremely excited about it.
Since the lithium ion batteries
have been available on the market,
off-grid has really changed.
So, as opposed to old lead-acid batteries,
it can do twice as much work, which is amazing.
It can charge three times as fast.
It can last five times as long.
Here we go.
(equipment whirring)
All right. (laughing)
You don't have to sacrifice anything to be off-grid now.
But what about sacrificing comfort and style?
A look inside the newly-finished interior
will answer that question.
All right, so it's been about six or seven weeks
since the demo.
It's all come together just in the nick of time.
Right this way is the entrance.
So, one of the things that I'm really happy with
are the stairs on the front.
Tiny homes have wheels,
which I don't find particularly attractive,
and so we designed it so we could cover those.
We didn't wanna build a permanent deck,
and so we added a couple of cushions,
and so it basically functions as on outdoor deck.
And then, finally, we made both of the tops hinged
and so we have storage, so like your outdoor garage.
Right in the back here, we've put the outdoor shower,
which works very well in Hawaii.
And so, you can be having the shower here
while looking at the ocean and looking at the gulch.
The 85-square-foot interior
is where Graham's efforts to maximize every usable inch
really pay off.
This side of the tiny house is the kitchen.
We've got a eight-foot counter.
I bought this really nice butcher block.
(light marimba music)
Because cabinets would've taken up
too much living space, Graham devised an open alternative.
Main feature is the pegboard wall.
You can design how you want things
and you can move it around as it changes.
We also have plug-in induction burners,
and so we have two or three of them,
and so you can pull out however many you need.
This is the toilet room,
so the separate composting toilet goes in here.
Of course you need room for your clothes,
and so we have this 32-inch rack here.
We mounted a simple wood dowel on some sliders.
One of the tricks in designing small
is to create spaces that do double duty,
like a queen-size elevator bed.
One of the things that takes up the most space is the bed.
And when you're looking at 100 square feet,
it's a really big part of it.
And so, it was very important
that we deal with the bed in some manner.
And we thought we would add pullies
and counterweights on the outside
and so we wouldn't need any electricity.
(laughing) It's still in development, I would say.
So, I'll show you, it's a little bit wonky right now,
but it's getting there.
So, we wanted to be able to just take it up
just by the edge,
but we realized that didn't work that well.
And so,
this is...
So, we're needing to increase the weights.
It turns out, with the bedding and the mattress,
it was more than we expected.
Having the bed out of the way, of course,
we've got this great couch.
Window seats are a terrific thing
'cause they take up very little space.
Wood boxes for tons of storage.
And you've got a terrific little office environment.
Amazing view.
And when the workday ends,
the space transforms once more--
So, this just moves around.
To meet Graham's goal
of having a place to entertain a houseful of guests.
Salud to the tiny house.
Salud!
Cheers! Cheers.
What's exciting about this is just that we're able to show
you can have a high-quality lifestyle
on an absolutely minimal footprint,
and I'd love to see us be doing much more of this
because it's not that complicated these days.
Being off-grid is a lot more popular now
and it's a lot more achievable.
The environmental situation
has only gotten worse,
and so it's really important that we come up with solutions
and start really living them.
We can live really compelling, fulfilling lives
that allow us to live within our means
financially and environmentally.
These simpler lives are happier lives.
(light ukulele music)