SCADPads: Tiny Homes Built In An Atlanta Parking Garage Are 135-Square Feet of Awesome

The Weather Channel ^ | May 2, 2014 | Jess Baker

[2ndDivisionVet]

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)

Weave your way to the top covered-floor of a parking garage in Midtown Atlanta, shielded from heavy rain and direct sunlight, and you won't find cars filling the spaces between the yellow lines. Instead, you'll find three micro homes and a handful of outdoor patios, all part of a micro-housing experiment the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) calls SCADPads.

As city populations boom — the World Health Organization says 6 out of 10 people will live in a city by 2030 — urban planners are pressured to seek out wise housing methods.

"If you look at where parking garages are located in cities, they're usually centrally located; There are usually many, many floors, so they provide an amazing view," explains Scott Boylston, SCAD's program coordinator for design for sustainability. "It really transforms the way we see neighborhoods. The idea that the garage becomes a village — a community."

Three tiny, 135-square-foot homes are the focal point of the experimental parking garage community. They were a collaborative effort between 135 students, five classes, 12 staffers and three dozen SCAD alumni. Each home is designed for a continent where SCAD has campuses: North America, Europe and Asia.

Boylston says the project is about "re-imagining urban living," so there's also a grey water garden, two common areas with seats and outdoor heaters, and even a 3D printer.

A dozen students are putting the SCADPads to a test this month in Atlanta, including Jerome Elder, a SCAD design for sustainability grad student. Elder says his friends thought he was a little crazy wanting to live in a such a small space, but Elder loves being part of the social experiment.

"I want to live in a parking garage because there are so many out there that can be reused and re-purposed," Elder explains. "I think it's really interesting to look at these structures that we often overlook and think of them in a different way."

"I wanted to know what it's like to live smart, live small and live easy," she tells weather.com. "Long back, I did want a big apartment all to myself and a comfortable lifestyle. But after living her for 10 days, this is pretty much what I want when I start work."

Boylston says that was exactly the point of the experiment: to change people's minds.

"It's aspirational and intended to bust a lot of people's perceptions about what can be in a place like this," he says.

You can follow the students' experiences living in the small homes via Twitter and Instagram by using the #SCADPad hashtag.

(SLIDESHOW-AT-LINK)

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Small boats and RVs both rely on external sanitary disposal services and potable water supply as well as temporary power hook ups. The bright young lights and their several dozen mentors in these design schools didn't consider that anymore than the Occupy Wall Street mob. Moms or the Great Surrogate MOM, the State will wipe their butts and clean up the messes left behind. But the whole scheme hinges on the supply of parking structures built,owned, and maintained by others. Pure and simple theft cloaked in Good Intentions.

I just watched the video. This is the most idiotic, half-baked, ill-conceived idea since "The Communist Manifesto." It's no surprise that it was conceived by art school students. And then there are the pom-pom waving cheerleaders at "The Weather Channel." God help us.

[SamAdams76]

Weather Channel aside (I guess they suck at predicting weather so like MTV and Rolling Stone, they are now focusing on "lifestyle"), I think this is a great idea. This allows young people to get out of their parents house and start living on their own somewhat affordably. It will allow divorced men a trendy place get back on their feet after yielding up their homes to the ex-wife. Or it could just be a place for an aging empty-nester couple to start a new life in the city after 20-30 years of high-stress living in the suburbs.

As I am in the latter group and our four-bedroom colonial in the suburbs is way to big for us, we are considering something like this (albeit a little roomier). All my books and music are digital. We both watch what little television we like on MacBook Pros using Netflix and Hulu so no need even for a big-screen television. Just a couch, a couple recliners, a soft bed and a minimal kitchen is all we really need as we eat out about 90% of the time anyhow.

So while the 135-sq ft is a bit small for me (maybe 300 sq ft will do), I really like the idea. No lawns to mow, no major housekeeping and repairs, etc.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

I can understand people wanting to downsize, but these students haven’t given any consideration to the practicality and unintended consequences of the design, much like the proponents of “urban renewal” in the 1960s.

[Covenantor]

LOL! Human filing cabinets. How apt. I’m stealing that for the next retired architects bat hop. Will peruse that strange link later. Can’t recall the author but one arch critic said the austere Bauhaus movement laid waste to the entire field of building trade craftsmen and that drywall sealed their tombs.

[texas booster]

The end game for microhousing. Wonder where the elites live?

[Georgia Girl 2]

I vote we give Al Gore and all the WHO people one of these snazzy pods to live in. :-)

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Will peruse that strange link later.

Like modern art, ideology lurks below the ugly surface.

Can’t recall the author but one arch critic said the austere Bauhaus movement laid waste to the entire field of building trade craftsmen and that drywall sealed their tombs.

Sad, really. The worst of the worst had to be the Brutalist architecture. Thank God that's over.