France Is a Tiny Prefab House That Costs Just $1,200 and Takes 3 Hours to Assemble

To put it differently, despite their compact footprint and the fact that they do propose and encourage a more affordable lifestyle farther down the road, tiny houses tend to be – pardon the French – darn expensive. Prefabricated units are an alternative, and you only need to look at the very cheap Casita from Boxabl, which sells for a hair under $50,000, for confirmation.

France is a tiny house that is part tiny, part prefab, and all awesomeness. It’s a prefabricated tiny house introduced as an experimental project in 2016, and which stands the test of time as a most colorful, affordable and cozy little refuge. It’s not technically a house, mobile or not, but more like a tiny cottage that can serve very well for short getaways in the country.

Despite the name, France the house has little in common with France the country, aside from the color scheme that matches the national flag. It is the creation of Pin-Up Houses, an international design studio based in the Czech Republic, which has specialized in experimental projects like this one. We covered a similar one, the Gaia Off-the-Grid House in 2021, a shipping container repurposed as a permanent, self-sufficient home for two.

The France tiny was created as part of “ongoing research into the feasibility of mass-produced prefabricated tiny houses,” and was designed by architect Joshua Woodsman. Its name comes from the fact that it’s divided into three main areas, each destined for a very specific purpose. The blue zone is the nighttime zone, as blue has been determined as the color best-suited for sleep. It would be improper to call it a bedroom, since the entire space is occupied by the bed, which is made up of smaller units that can be separated and used for seating.

The white area in the middle is the living, and it’s separated from the bedroom by a multi-functional partition that doubles as shelving unit and entryway. It’s not much but, in a space as cramped as this, it helps with creating the illusion of separate “rooms.” The red area is the heating area, destined for the kitchenette: a wood-burning stove and some shelves give the place the resemblance of a kitchen.

The color scheme further helps with dividing the space according to functionality. Make no mistake about it, as cute and chic France is, it’s a very tight squeeze, offering just 8 square meters (86 square feet) of living space, which makes it suitable for a couple, and ideal for a single occupant. Given its dimensions, it doesn’t have a restroom or even something remotely like bathroom facilities, which is perhaps the one thing stopping it from being perfect, and limits its applicability in the real world.

But what France lacks in comforts, it makes up for in other things. Like, for instance, how incredibly affordable it is: whereas most tiny houses will set you back at least some $70,000, this one costs just $1,200. Technically, it’s $190 for the plans, and the rest goes to buying and building the 21 insulated panels that will go into building of the house.

The panels are held together with threaded rods, so assembling it should take no more than three hours for a three-person team, as showcased in the video below. Imagine that, you’d be putting up a house, tiny as it is, in less time than you’d need to finish a Lego Technic set. Pin-Up Houses offers the plans, including detailed instructions and list of tools, and even illustrations to help you along the way.

At the end, you’re supposed to get a timber structure that is 3.8 by 2.1 meters (12.4 by 6.8 feet), with a maximum height of 3 meters (9.8 feet). Add a classic gabled roof and 6 smaller pillars to elevate it off the ground, and you’re set.

Short assembly time and very affordable pricing might not be enough to make France a hot contender as a permanent residence, but they help to turn it into a solid option as an occasional retreat in the countryside. One with that je ne sais quoi of the French.