Can your regular, non-moving house do this? A tiny home in New Zealand aims for a world first, despite its diminutive size and the fact that, at first sight, it’s as regular as they come: the world’s first tiny home that doubles as a car carrier.
The tiny in question is called Tadpole Tiny House and it’s one of the most recent projects from Build Tiny. The New Zealand-based company has a reputation for delivering custom turnkey projects that defy even the most optimistic expectations and the norm for tiny living, but this one probably has them all beat.
The Tadpole is small and, for once, not meant as a permanent residence. Instead, it has surprising double functionality as a car transporter, because the owners it was built for wanted something they could still use to haul their vintage rides in. They already have a log cabin-like tiny they use with friends and family, and they wanted an additional guest room.
It was delivered to them as the Tadpole, the perfect, versatile tiny that could also work as a home office or, under certain conditions, a mobile home. But the highest selling point of the Tadpole is that it can be removed from the trailer so that it can be loaded up with a car. Whenever the owners need to move one of their cars, they simply unbolt the house from the trailer and jack it up, pulling the trailer from underneath.
Photo: Build Tiny
The trailer can also tilt to allow driving a car up on it, and a nose cone is added to further secure the vehicle. Build Tiny says that the owner has already used the trailer for this purpose for more than 4,000 km (2,485 miles) across New Zealand. Presumably, in between rides, the Tadpole has been sleeping guests.
Speaking of guests, up to three people can comfortably take shelter inside for shorter stretches. As noted above, this 7-foot-long (2.1-meter) tiny is not designed as a permanent residence, but as a guest house. With a steel frame, vinyl cladding with cedar walls, double-glazed aluminum windows, and poplar core plywood interior, it’s cozy and elegant, and still very airy despite its small footprint.
The rear is taken up by the bedroom area, while the centrally-located living houses a sofa that can easily sleep another adult, if need be. The kitchen area is on the basic side and that too is an overstatement, but it still has a microwave, small fridge and freezer combo, sink and cabinetry, and there is plenty of shelving around to store the basics for a few days. The bathroom is on the front end, behind a pocket door: it’s just as small as the other areas, but it has a small sink on a wooden vanity, a composting toilet, and a shower.
Opposite the kitchen area is a small dining nook for two, which can also work as an office. It will be an office with a view, and that view can change depending on where you tow it next. How’s that for working remotely?
Photo: Build Tiny
Tadpole comes with standard grid-based hookup but is pre-wired for solar, should the owner want off-grid capability later on. It was delivered fully furnished, as a turnkey build.
Build Tiny boasts that this is the world’s first tiny house with car carrier functionality, and it could be an accurate claim, if only for the fact that we have no way of checking. But what we can say with certainty is that Tadpole adds value to the idea of tiny living through double functionality. It also stands out as an elegant and welcoming tiny, the kind that this particular builder has a solid reputation of delivering.
As for pricing, there’s no word on that. Before you get too excited, though, you should know that Build Tiny’s turnkey homes are on the expensive side – think upwards of $100,000. Tadpole is probably no different.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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