Stronghold Tiny House Wins an AIA Award

• October 17th 2013

by Shilpi Paul

Minim House, one of the Tiny Houses currently on display at the Boneyard Studios in Stronghold, just won a Merit award from the DC chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

The AIA award seems like it could be a legitimizing symbol of the Tiny House movement. “We’re not sure, but we think this may be one of the few (only) trailers ever to win an AIA award, and was certainly the lowest cost project this year’s AIA-DC awards roster,” declared Boneyard Studios in a recent blog post.

“It’s our hope that this recognition will help elevate the Tiny House prototype to something that is worthy of careful design considerations,” Will Couch, one of the architects, told UrbanTurf.

Minim House was designed by Couch and Matthew Compton of Foundry Architects, in collaboration with Brian Levy, who owns the house.

Like most Tiny Houses, the structure is a mobile home on wheels, and is capable of existing off the grid. Many of the interior design elements, outlined here, have multiple functions, like a table system that can be moved around and lowered and raised to become a coffee table, desk, countertop and bedside table. The bed is pulled out from under a slightly elevated office area.

Minim House is also wider than a typical Tiny House, and has over-sized windows to make the interior feel bright. While many Tiny Houses can feel dark and cramped, Minim House somehow feels like a place where you can stretch out.

“The judges commented that the design felt like a house, not something portable,” noted Couch. “The care and finish of this Tiny House is appealing to people that haven’t even considered living in a small space before.”

More photos, courtesy of Foundry Architects, below.

Similar Posts:

• The Tiny Houses of Stronghold: An Update
• One on One: DC’s Tiny House Folks

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/stronghold_tiny_house_wins_an_aia_award/7703.