Take a closer look into the world of Chapel Hill’s tiny homes
By Anna-Rhesa Versola | Photography by John Michael Simpson
Arielle Schechter knows a thing or two about compact, functional designs.
“I think it’s important to offer smaller buildings because they’re much more energy-efficient, for one thing,” says the Chapel Hill-based architect. “You can put your money toward the important stuff. You’re not wasting space.”
Arielle learned this lesson in 1987 when she renovated a 850-square-foot house in Hillsborough after graduating from NCSU’s School of Architecture. “My dad and I would go renovate it on weekends,” she remembers. “I opened up walls and brought in more light. I knew the potential of a small space being something really beautiful, grand and livable. I put every square inch of that house to use, and it taught me the way.”
Her passion for net-zero homes resulted in Micropolis, her collection of designs for smart living within a smaller footprint. And though the definition of a tiny home varies, her designs range in size from 150 to 1,500 square feet.
The architect, who this year was named to Forbes Magazine‘s inaugural list of the top 200 residential architects in America, has lost count of the number of Micropolis homes she has built but estimates less than 100 globally. “Some people hire me for the Micropolis houses but end up doubling and tripling the size,” she says. “I design houses of all sizes. I’m designing one right now that is almost 7,000 square feet and has similar performance for efficiency. I’ve had people throw in the towel and just give up on a tiny house after I’ve told them there isn’t room for a whole mudroom or a laundry room; instead, you’d have to make do with a laundry closet or something, and you’d have to pare down your belongings. Some people decide, ‘No, this is just going to not going to work for me.'”
Arielle has certain rules of success for clients who are ready to adapt to tiny home living. “One is that there has to be at least one space with a higher ceiling, and that gives it a more lofty feeling,” she says. “And there have to be at least two outdoor spaces, preferably three.” Arielle emphasizes the importance of decks, terraces or screened porches to expand a home’s livability at a lower cost.
She says the costs of high-quality materials and construction continue to rise following the pandemic and expects prices to climb even higher with the anticipated tariffs. “Before the pandemic, my houses were coming in at $225 per heated square foot,” Arielle says. “After the pandemic, I’ve done my own survey around the state for good, quality construction, which is ranging from $400 to $500 per heated square foot.”
The Jewel Box
Michael Wolfe grew up in a house on his family’s 100 acres of forested land adjacent to Duke Forest and a Triangle Land Conservancy preserve near Union Grove Church Road. After high school, he joined the U.S. Army when wars raged in Iraq and Afghanistan and learned to live in tight spaces. During his 15 years abroad in various countries, Mike developed a keen eye for high-end furniture design and began to collect pieces that would one day inhabit his dream home. And when he was ready, he chose Arielle’s design called Tadpole to build his 900-square-foot modern house at the end of a milelong gravel drive on his family property. He says his home is a jewel box in the forest.
“I feel like this space is representative of me,” he says, crossing his left leg over his right and stretching his arm across the top of a vintage leather couch. He surveys the light-filled, vaulted room. The wood fire flares in the furnace. Three walls bear his neatly stacked book trophies. Pocket doors and unadorned windows provide a clear view of the forest at every turn. The Tadpole floor plan by Arielle was customized to Mike’s preferences and built by Kevin Murphy of Newphire Building.
The home’s net-zero efficiency is primarily due to high-quality building materials, insulation, a solar array power source, a mini split HVAC system with a good air filtration system and a design that optimizes sunlight exposure.
Mike now shares his home with Annabel St Louis, a data science analyst who was trained as an industrial engineer. She grew up in Haiti, where her father is an architect. “Focus on what you need,” Annabel recommends for anyone considering tiny living. “Focus on what’s functional for you, make it your own, but also embrace it.”
“When you live in a 900-square-foot house, you have to account for what’s important to you and what you need.”
Michael Wolfe, homeowner
Alternative Housing Solutions
One builder who is wading into the tiny home arena is Jennifer Hoffman of the newly renamed West End Building Company in Carrboro. For the last decade, she and her team have designed and built residences all over the area. Now, they are launching a side initiative to provide stick-built homes that can be delivered to a buyer and placed on a permanent foundation.
“These would not be custom one-off builds,” Jennifer says. The concept offers a choice of floorplans and elevations, plus a curated menu of interior options, like countertops and cabinets. “The only unknown cost is the foundation because every site is different.”
Once a home is fully built off-site, Jennifer says, it would be transported by truck to the homebuyer’s property. She emphasizes that these homes are not built on wheels like some of the tiny homes seen on Airbnb or reality TV shows because zoning restrictions prevent using a wheeled home as a permanent residence. Similarly, shed conversions and accessory dwelling units are subject to strict building codes, permits and zoning requirements that can limit where to place a tiny home.
Entry-level costs begin roughly at $150,000. “I usually tell people that when I’m doing a site-built home, we’re going to start at $350 per square foot and go up,” Jennifer says of ground-up custom residential construction. “[But] if we’re building off-site, we can bring the cost down.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge is finding affordable, available land where a potential homeowner might build a permanent foundation for a future home. “Most jurisdictions are rezoning because they recognize that we need to allow building with more density in urban areas and connect people to existing amenities, like public transportation,” Jennifer says.
Meanwhile, Lisa Fischbeck, a priest at Episcopal Church of the Advocate in Chapel Hill who co-founded Pee Wee Homes in 2015, continues to follow her passion to provide affordable housing for those living well below the poverty level.
“It’s pretty evident that there’s an affordable housing crisis in our community,” Lisa says. “In fact, it’s all across the country.”
Lisa explains that affordable housing is defined as spending no more than one-third of your income on housing costs. “Let’s say your income is $2,400 a month, you’d have to find housing that’s $800 a month,” she says. “If your income is $1,200 a month, you’d have to find housing that is $400 a month. And there simply is not that kind of housing available.”
With unflinching support from the community, tiny homes are squeezed onto parcels of land belonging to the church, the Town of Chapel Hill and the Town of Carrboro. Seven single-family and duplex homes have already been built with plans to add more, Lisa says. “Land is hard to come by in Chapel Hill and Carrboro,” Lisa says. “If you get out of the southern part of the county, there’s more land available.”
The church and Pee Wee Homes continue to raise funds, apply for grants and appeal to the kindness of others to make it possible to build a 360-square-foot house, a size that would occupy the inside of two standard parking spaces. “Cities and towns are slowly catching on, and the rules are changing,” Lisa says. “It’s an exciting time.”
