Darin Dinsmore is the urban planner and landscape architect behind the amazing TinyCamp Sedona, a small pod of tiny houses available for nightly rentals outside of Sedona, Arizona. Darin is just getting started applying his skills as a developer to tiny house communities. He’ll let us in on the projects he’s working on now, how he approaches developing tiny house communities, and what he’s excited about for the future of tiny homes.
In This Episode:
- A recovering urban planner turns to tiny homes to address the housing crisis
- How TinyCamp used different examples to showcase the types of tiny homes that are possible
- Tiny house regulations, zoning code hacks, and the language that matters
- Projects that are currently in development and who they serve
- What is a Zoom Community and how did Covid affect where people are choosing to live?
- Bungalow courts in military towns are a source of inspiration for tiny home villages
- First steps to starting your own tiny house community
- Why legal permits are a good idea
- Cities copy what other cities are doing: Boulder, CO is a case study
- How to use input from the community and potential residents to build your tiny house community
- Get the most value out of your land by using your tiny house
- Become your own bank: an investment method for a tiny house village
Links and Resources:
- Tiny Home Industry Association
- American Tiny House Association
- Community First! Village in Austin, TX
- Crowbrite.net/clarkdale
- Tiny Camp Gather
- A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
- Pocket Neighborhoods by Ross Chapin
- Creating Cohousing by Charles Durrett
Guest Bio:
Darin Dinsmore
Darin Dinsmore is an urban planner & landscape architect with over 25 years of experience in community-based planning and design. He launched Crowdbrite in 2010 to bring plans to life and find solutions to improve civic engagement. His award-winning interactive online tool has helped more than 1 m people design their city while leveraging more than $2.5b of new investment. The Crowdbrite team helps build the natural, social, and financial capital to strengthen neighborhoods and revitalize communities. We were awarded the app of the year 2016 by the Lincoln Land Institute with projects featured in Fast Company Magazine.
To help create more sustainable and vibrant communities he launched a suite of SMART planning tools including www.infillscore.com and the Community Revitalization Program, used by more than 400 communities. In 2020 Darin is working to create new jobs and innovative housing solutions with 5 Tiny House demonstration projects across California and Arizona. Their first projects include www.tinycamp.com in magical Sedona, Az, City of Riverside Grove tiny homes and a tiny house for a teacher at the Sedona Charter School. The latest project features integrated community gardens and many sustainability features.
This Week's Sponsor:
Tiny Tuesdays
Did you know that I personally send a tiny house newsletter every week on Tuesdays? It's called Tiny Tuesdays and it's a weekly email with tiny house news, interviews, photos, and resources. It's free to subscribe and I even share sneak peeks of things that are coming up, ask for feedback about upcoming podcast guests, and more. It's really the best place to keep a pulse on what I'm doing in the tiny house space and also stay informed about what's going on in the tiny house movement.
To sign up go to thetinyhouse.net/newsletter. I'll never send you spam and if you don't want to receive emails, it's easy to unsubscribe. I hope you enjoy next week's Tiny Tuesdays newsletter!
More Photos:
All photos are courtesy of Katherine Bacon
White paint and lots of natural sunlight make a tiny house look large
A welcoming loft bed awaits the vacationers who will stay here
The storage loft shows guests how they can use the space in their own tiny homes
Comfy additional seating
A sign tells Instagramers which hashtags to use – #helpful
I love the t-shirts
Oversize chair or small sofa? What do you think?
Different designs help guests decide what they like best about tiny house living
Bathroom layout is always interesting
The electric range helps cut down your propane consumption.
The kitchen and bathroom under the sleeping loft
Living room with television and footrest
Bathroom storage shelf
A clever use of two small tables
A nice deck for sitting outside
Darin put the moveable tiny house onto a permanent foundation
The height of this tiny house is due to the slope in the rear
Tiny Camp
Nice sitting area and grill
Nesting tables allow you to keep things neat
Hot tub under the stars
There's even room for yoga