Leave it to an architect to come up with the idea of repurposing a 60-year-old grain silo into an exquisite piece of the amazing tiny home movement. Christoph Kaiser, an architect at Kaiserworks in Phoenix, Arizona, found a 1950’s grain silo on Craigslist and the creative juices began to flow. The thought process of this silo home began as a tiny house with an incredibly small footprint that would comfortably sustain his wife and himself. Utilizing walnut plank flooring that Christoph also found on Craigslist, the interior conforms to the round exterior of the silo, rather than turning it into the square box-style rooms found in traditional homes. Check out these photos of the progress.
The blueprint below shows the side view making it easy to see that this is indeed a tiny home.
In the top view of the blueprint, you can see that the bedroom/loft takes up just over half of the upper level of the silo.
After the foundation has been poured, which is complete with subterranean air ducts, assembly of the roof and subsequent steel silo panels can ensue.
Doors and windows had to be specially cut, obviously. Otherwise they would literally just be living inside a tin can!
The framing will house an immense amount of spray foam type insulation to keep the couple comfortable and protected from the high Phoenix temperatures.
The exterior is painted white to assist in the reflection of the sun and easier maintenance of the internal temperature.
The exterior brilliantly disguises the beautiful and modern design of the interior.
The exterior at night looks amazing with nice lighting in the garden/ patio area.
The curvature of the silo is continued throughout the silo home and is a tribute the architectural brilliance of Christoph Kaiser.
The view from behind the stairs shows how the design of the 9 foot sliding door creates something of a great room from the interior out to the patio. What could be more of a great room than continuing your house into the great outdoors?
Here, you can see the tree stump that is used as a large stair from the deck to the patio.
From the bedroom, you can see that the couch was designed to work as a chair to visit with people on the patio as well. What I really love in this shot, though, is the beauty of the floating spiral staircase.
The circular theme of this whole tiny silo home is present throughout the entire project including the deck, the rock wall and even the concrete slabs that continue into the garden and around the house.
The foliage on the right side of this photo are mastic plants that can grow up to 16 feet tall and will eventually provide the silo home with plenty of shade in the hot summer days.
This custom 9 foot sliding door opens up to a great custom fence and patio / garden area.
The garden / patio area is obviously a great area to relax and enjoy a glass of wine.
The sleeping loft area has a slider that can be closed for additional privacy. You might also notice that Christoph has installed a small projector so that he and his wife can enjoy the occasional movie on the wall opposite the bed.
I think that a big part of the tiny home movement that is typically overlooked is the agricultural self sustainability. Apparently this is something that also crossed Christoph’s mind, as he included a nice garden area with room to grow. Hanging planters can be easily added to the great circular perimeter fence.
As the couple comes home fresh from a bike ride, you can see that being water conscience was a priority. Most of the property has been zeroscaped to responsibly reduce their footprint.
The front door comes in at the base of this awesome wood and black steel floating spiral staircase. One day I WILL have one of these in my home!
With an amazing modern home artistically created with such attention to detail in both the building and the landscaping, I find myself leaning more towards a tiny home rather than the mid-sized, run of the mill home in which I currently reside.
I’ve always had the greedy fantasy to live in a very large home with plenty of room for holidays, overnight guests, art room, offices, workout rooms, etc. I don’t think that anything will completely change my mind and convince me that the tiny home movement is something that I HAVE to participate in. If I keep seeing enough of these homes, however, I may just have to start dreaming of a tiny vacation home somewhere sunny!