The Elegant Cabana Tiny House Puts a Sustainable Spin on Mobile Living

People have been traveling for centuries in all manners of mobile homes, but tiny houses only began gaining popularity in the early 2000s. For some time, they existed at the fringe of the housing and RV industries, seemingly reserved only for hipsters looking for drastic measures to save our planet – and look good while doing it.

At first, tiny houses proposed a smaller footprint for living for a reduced carbon footprint. If you have a smaller house with limited resources, you will consume less and be more mindful of the little you do consume. At the same time, if your house sits on a trailer, it won't impact the surrounding environment in any way because it doesn't require foundations and construction work.

Today, tiny houses are popular for the promise of reduced monthly expenses, the ability to travel more with the entire family in tow, and for allowing intentional living. We're all stressed out whether we know it or not, so some intentional living can do no harm, even if it still sounds like something only hippies, hipsters, and tree-huggers do.

French builder Quadrapol proposes a return to the roots of tiny living by means of all-wood constructions. Quadrapol works mostly with tourist companies, offering lodging for campsites (their most recent tiny house establishment is right outside of Paris), but they also do tinies for the city-dweller looking for a less stressful and more mindful life in nature.

The Cabana is one of the most recent additions to the Quadrapol lineup and a perfect example of what tiny living and downsizing are all about. It's a compact tiny house made of responsibly-sourced wood, with plenty of green features and a timeless design that invites to calm and relaxation. The Cabana also offers sleeping for up to six people and the most basic of creature comforts. It's simple in a very rustic, log cabin kind of way, but it's also very good-looking and even relatively elegant in a way that only simplicity can be.

Wood has personality and warmth, so a tiny like the Cabana is bound to offer "a unique living experience," Quadrapol believes. And what better way to get in touch with Mother Nature than by living in a house built with her help?

The layout of the Cabana is a standard two-loft one, with the living spaces grouped on the ground floor and sleeping accommodation upstairs. You get 24.03 square meters (258.6 square feet) of total living space, including the two lofts upstairs, neither of which has standing height. It's plenty of space for a house that sits on a 6-meter (19.6-foot) dual-axle trailer, which means it remains as mobile as you need it to be without requiring special permits for relocation.

Made with a wooden frame and larch cladding, the Cabana comes with a steel roof and aluminum windows and doors, and double glazing for the windows. It's insulated, too, so it's usable year-round with maximum comfort: your very own little wooden house.

The ground floor holds the living area by the large French doors, which could be turned into a guest bedroom if need be. The kitchen comes fully equipped, though it's much smaller than what you see in tinies from the U.S., New Zealand, or even the UK. Still, you get a butcher countertop, gas range, oven, a deep sink, and plenty of storage. Unlike other builders out there, Quadrapol even supplies the plates and cutlery with their turnkey projects, so you're getting a ready-to-move-in house.

The bathroom is just as small but has a walk-in shower and a dry toilet, also made of wood. It doesn't get any more rustic than that – plus, you save water, too!

For even more sustainable features, Quadrapol offers a range of optionals that could render the tiny fully off-grid. Solar panels, rainwater collection, gray water filtration and recycling, a gas system, and a wood-burning stove are some of these features available at an extra charge. Further customization is possible by adding more accessories, opting for a slightly modified layout, or choosing different cladding for the exterior.

Quadrapol promises a four to five-month delivery timeline for a turnkey project, with shipping possible throughout Europe. The Cabana starts at €53,500, including taxes, so approximately $60,000 at the current exchange rate. That's more money than you'd pay for an average-sized tiny from any other established builder, and you're getting less house for it, but the Cabana has that log cabin look down like no other.

The Cabana is downsizing condensed, with no frills and thrills and all the focus on a sustainable, off-the-grid life.