After six years of dragging and pulling, in Assen the first shovel finally goes into the ground for 21 tiny houses on the outskirts of Baggelhuizen. But the street sign still has to be adjusted. At the starting act, it went very ugly yesterday.
At the town hall someone has not paid attention, so the brand new construction project unintentionally lies on the Schakelveld and not at the Schakelhof. The surprise was great, when housing alderman Cor Staal (ChristenUnie) pulled the blue canvas off the sign as fun, festive and official moment. “Didn’t we have agreed Schakelhof? Yes, right?”
Surprised faces everywhere. Especially with the group of future residents, who were officially brought together earlier this year in the Tiny Houses Assen association. Officially, this club becomes the tenant of the land of the municipality of Assen, for which every resident will soon pay money. But steel quickly promised replacement of the blue plate. “We will recover this.”
Confusion is lurking. Opposite the construction site for the Tiny Houses is MFA Het Schakelveld, including schools, childcare, daytime activities and a swimming school. “Schakelhof has been agreed, we will arrange that,” says Staal.
The first three Tiny Houses will be set up next month. The rest will follow in the following months, the plan is. Of the 21 lots, there are serious interest for sixteen plots. One of them will be inhabited by Natasja and Gerbrand Oosterloo, from Smilde. She was crowned chairman of the club, but will not be the first to settle on the Bouwakker with her partner. “We first wait for the utilities. Only then will we build.”
The couple will live very small in the field, sandwiched between the A28 motorway and Baggelhuizen. “We go for sustainable and minimalist.” Their house will soon cover a total of only 20 square meters of floor space, while according to the building regulations 50, the total building area may be on a plot of 150 square meters.
“We are on 15 square meters on the ground floor, complete with kitchen, sitting area and a bathroom, and we still have a kind of upper floor in the shape of a void of 5 square meters in front of our bedroom,” smiles Gerbrand. “Enough for the two of us, everything is in it.”
The couple is ‘experience expert’, because they had been living in a Tiny House for seven years. Assen is their new adventure in this area. “We hope to build somewhere between November and December. But we depend on the utilities.”
Although there is room for a total of 21 houses, where three houses are put together in a courtyard, Alderman Staal is happy that not all microcales are still occupied. “Once the construction is done, and people see the good result, then it is nice if there is still some space.”
The Tiny Houses may in principle be fifteen years at the Schakelhof, the agreement is. Then the municipality examines whether the small -scale housing project is a success and whether it will be following at another place in Assen.