There’s more to home building than the design, manufacture and assembling of the WikiHouse blocks. To create micro-hamlets of starter homes we need to develop lots where can we place WikiHouse structures. We need to:
- Legally sub-divide any given plot of land into micro-lots. A 400 sq ft house would benefit from a 700- 800 sq ft lot, so that the owners would have a small backyard and potentially room for car parking in the front. We also need at least 5 ft of side separation. In short, building codes must allow for very small lots.
- Every micro-lot will require utility hook-ups at the perimeter, e.g., water and sewer, data, and grid electrical power (to augment rooftop solar panels where feasible).
There are also non-tangible pre-requisites such as:
- Having a legal framework in place for ownership deeds (for buying and selling individual homes),
- Establish taxation rates for communities comprised of small homes on micro-lots,
- Insurability.
Redevelopment of the Saxonvale area in the city of Frome, England offers inspiration for including micro-lot clusters within urban centers for the self-builders. Tiny-House Quarters in the Frome Saxonvale Mayday Masterplan is the first of its kind in England.
Their overall vision as it relates to housing is inspirational as well. Their guiding light is that urban redevelopment design should deliver a sense of “well living” for those that live there: Mayday Saxonvale Housing Vision