One of the big mistakes we made was building a shelter that was too big.  It consumed a tremendous amount of our time, energy and resources and if I had to do it again, I would build much smaller.  In the spirit of that idea, I came up with a few designs of various sizes.  Some are permanent, others are emergency shelters.  But you should get a good idea of what I'm talking about in regards to building smaller homes.

Idle No More - Permanent earth-rammed home

I drew up this tiny home earthship for Sylvia McAdam, one of the co-founders of Idle No More.  I don't know what she is doing with it, but this could serve as a nice home for a small family.  The loft is a teepee shaped structure with a loft ladder to allow for people to get up and down.  It has windows on the south side to illuminate the loft area.  The main living space is on the main floor with the north half being the tire wall and the south half being a glass wall that looks into the greenhouse and faces south.  

The greenhouse provides a thermal barrier for winter time as around here it gets really cold.  Having our food growing in our house is also designed to reduce or eliminate our dependency on the industrial / commercial food system.  

This greenhouse wraps around the south side of the building and provides additional roof area for collecting rain water.  The north side of the building is back filled like a typical earthship.  This building is a permanent structure and will require significant resources and labor to build.  I estimate that material costs are about $10,000CDN and and labour costs would be around $90,000 if you hired somebody to build it for you.  If you did the work yourself, this building is within reach of most people.

Temporary Shelter (2 - 5 years)

If you don't want to pound tires, then this next model is build with paving stones and landscaping bricks, back filled of course.  

The rocket stove should be big enough to heat the space and the thermal mass of the floor.  Because there are no walls, the perimeter of the building is not usable living space but can be used for storage.  This building is easy and quick to construct as well, going from ground breaking to moving in within a matter of weeks.  It would make a great shelter while a more permanent shelter is being constructed.  

The living space is nice for a tiny home and could accommodate a family of four.  The loft being a sleeping and storage space living the main area open for daily activities.  Living off grid usually results in living outside, so the shelter is used more for sleeping and food preparation.  Due to the slope of the roof, there is about 177 square feet of space where a tall individual could stand up straight.  It gets tighter the closer to the edge one gets.  Again, the perimeter is used mainly for storage.

The loft could easily sleep two people with access via a loft / attic ladder.  An emergency hatch could also be built into the roof so that people can get out in case of a fire or other emergency and slide down the side of the house to the ground.  Or a ladder could be built on the outside to accommodate egress.  

Emergency Shelter

Of course, in case of emergency we don't have time to sit around and build something that is big or complex.  We need to build something that can go up in a few hours.  With just a few 16 foot - 2x6's, this next shelter could go up in a day with tarps to cover it and then finished over the span of a few days.   

With a 2/3 loft, it would provide room for the stove pipe to run out the top of the teepee to cook and heat the space.  The loft could be used for storage or a single individual could sleep there with room for two more on the main floor.

Obviously, these are ideas and if you are not familiar with building techniques, then I recommend that you get a professional to draw up the engineering of these structures before you tackle building them.  In the end, you are 100% responsible and accountable for what ever structures you build.  There are thousands of tiny home designs on line that one can look at as well.  I am sharing these ideas to show that we can also have tiny home thermal mass shelters to help keep one warm through a harsh winter.  Cover them with tin, one could collect water as well.  Let me know what you think.

I can be contacted privately at steemit.chat as well if you want to talk more about these ideas.