This New $118K Micro-Cabin Is as Elegant as It Is Efficient

When Lee Loewen and Payam Shalchian started Instead, an Ontario, Canada–based tiny home design/build company, they sought to enable people to live more closely connected to the land without being pushed beyond financial means. "We were tired of disposable consumerism and having to design for it, and we wanted to pare down our own possessions to only the things we use," Loewen says. "More recently, our disillusionment with the runaway cost of housing and senseless property values pushed us to create something different."

Instead’s inaugural design, named Project 01, is a 262-square-foot off-grid-capable micro cabin that Loewen and his wife and son lived in before finalizing the plans. "I strongly believe in testing and validating a design firsthand," he says. "I wanted to really understand how people use small spaces—what becomes the most important function, what never really gets used, what appliances and utilities work as expected, and what needs to change."

The tiny home’s exterior is wrapped in black-stained marine-grade plywood topped with vertical and horizontal solid pine battens that provide texture and visual interest. "It blends in and merges with its surroundings," Shalchian says. "The guiding principle for the design—and everything we do at Instead—was to reduce visual impact on the land and blur the barrier between the indoors and the outdoors."

Shalchian believes that people’s connection to the great outdoors is becoming weaker, which has led to nature deficit disorders and less environmental consciousness. "Reestablishing connection with the land is of utmost importance," he says.