Tiny Huts by MUJI (2017) | Hacker News Reader

Tiny Huts by MUJI (2017)

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38 pointskeiferski22 comments

A link with way more detail about layout and materials: https://www.muji.com/jp/mujihut/en.html

Cost is ~22k USD

The site mentions sustainability but then shows a wood burning stove. If everyone on earth who needed to cook or heat a home used wood things would be far worse than using gas.

But if you have property with trees on it, burning wood is very sustainable. An acre of trees produces a cord of wood a year, sustainably.

It's not sustainable in terms of health. Woodsmoke is terribly bad for human beings.

https://www.samharris.org/blog/the-fireplace-delusion

This product is a hut without sanitation for people with significant disposible income. It is clearly not designed as a permanent dwelling. The stove in the marketing photos is very small and has a door. Without disputing smoke not being great for you, I think it's safe to say this is not a context anyone should be losing sleep over.

Wood burning heaters are really common in tiny house builds, but yeah I'm skeptical that they're all sealed and vented properly, and that doesn't help at all with the outdoor air pollution. Generally bad idea, I agree.

I was curious about the relationship between number of people on the planet vs acres of forest. Turns out there's enough forest for about 1.24 acres per person. That was close enough to 1 to be interesting.

There’s been a boom in outdoors living, camping as well as DIY cabins in Japan the past decade, and with these comes the all too familiar wood stove as part of the imagery.

Many professionals I’ve spoken to advise against the wood stove, because it complicates contruction, is a huge fire hazard in a neighbourhood of wooden houses and not really economical at heating a dwelling.

But it looks cool (present imagery of American country side) so it sells.

Burning wood from a managed forest is close to carbon neutral; burning gas definitely isn’t.

The points others make about the health dangers of woodsmoke are well taken; but from a sustainability perspective, burning gas is worse than ‘good’ wood.

I actually wanted to buy something like this in my backyard for guests or maybe a detached office.

Does anyone have experience with buying a small shack like this? Do I just hire a contractor to build it or are there companies like MUJI in the US?

I believe the official term is accessory dwelling unit. You'll have to check your local zoning regulations on the rules and regulations for those. Yes there are companies that specialize in building those.

ADUs generally have plumbing/electrical and are permanent living spaces. You could get away with an accessory building (permit required) or depending on your zoning, a smaller structure/shed (no permit required).

Tuff shed will give you a basic structure on the cheap and are very customizable. They’ll come onsite and build it. Hire a contractor to finish the interior as you like.

I had a 16’x12’ built for around 6k (pre-pandemic) that I use for an office.

We bought two of them during the pandemic! One is my office and the other is my wife’s music studio; they’re about 12’x16’ each, with a storage loft above the door. The company we bought them from in NC has a website that lets you design the layout, add windows, etc., and then you can have it unfinished (for a workshop) or finished with insulation and electrical. They construct them offsite and then deliver them to your property—all told they’re on the order of $10-15k each depending on options chosen, and then you’ll need to arrange a gravel pad for them, electrical hookups, etc. Not bad, especially financed, and cheaper than an addition on the house. :)

Did they ship them from NC to a different place? Or is the vendor local to you?

I remember seeing a few of these during the pandemic and the idea of a private separate office is appealing.

They build them in NC and we live there, so they literally drove them over to us on a truck and deposited them in our yard. I'm not sure what their shipping range is, but given that they're just driving it, I would imagine they could truck it just about anywhere in the contiguous US with enough financial incentive. :)

There are MUJI locations in Boston, NY, and Portland. https://www.muji.us/pages/store-information

MUJI Tiny Bathroom sold separately

Does the MUJI Tiny Outhouse (sold separately) come with canalization and flushing water, or just a hole and "tank"?

Yeah, that thing is clearly not meant for people to live in, unlike the article suggests.

> come with canalization and flushing water, or just a hole and "tank"?

whew whew whew, those are 3 different kinds of privies!

I like the hole in the ground and no tank approach.

I wish MUJI did sell a Tiny Outhouse. A nice precut kit one usually goes for US$1200 as it's such a niche product: https://jamaicacottageshop.com/shop/working-out-house/#selec...

Does minimalist and sustainable plumbing exist? It seems to be the shortcoming of every tiny and/or mobile home.

Sustainable yes, minimalist no. This sort of thing requires no intervention but an awful lot of space and preparation - https://sheepdrove.com/reed-bed

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