It will be the largest neighborhood with mini houses in the Netherlands: Minitopia hamlet Te Veld in Eindhoven. Hundreds of small houses come together. Another special feature is that residents can stay there for fifteen to thirty years. In other places it is only five years. Laura Rijvers (38) is the first resident, last week she moved to her house that cost just over a hundred thousand euros.
Laura started working with a designer and got a house that completely meets her wishes. Her house may remain for fifteen years. “Others have a permit for thirty years, but then you had to meet stricter requirements.”
She has had her dream house built in a factory. After that it was a matter of transport and placement. It is thirty square meters. “I consciously chose that. I didn’t live very big, but I wanted to see if I could live even smaller. I have found that I do not need much.”
“I have cupboards with storage space everywhere.”
Cooking, sleeping, sitting: it’s all in the same room. Everything is aimed at saving space. She has to go up a flight of stairs to the loft bed. One step of that staircase leads over the counter top of the kitchen. She cannot stand in the sleeping area itself. “You can sit up straight. That is it. It is not very useful if you are old and worn out.” There is no shed. “I have cupboards with storage space everywhere. Under the desk and in the stairs.”
Laura used to live with her parents on a farm. That’s where the idea of living small was already born. “I saw that my parents were often busy with maintenance and collecting a lot of stuff. Step by step it has also come to do with sustainability. Be more aware of everything you have and buy.”
“‘Can you live there with just the two of you?’ I hear then.”
Laura is regularly asked how to proceed if she gets into a relationship. “’Can you live there with just the two of you?’ I hear then. I can go for a drink. Or I can always sell my house again. I’ll see what happens.”
Minitopia Eindhoven will be the largest district of tiny houses from The Netherlands. By way of comparison: there are thirty houses in Den Bosch. Roosendaal has ten and in Dongen there will also be ten.
In Eindhoven you can still largely see a bare plain where only a few houses are left. But that won’t last long. Of the hundred places, twenty places are still available in Eindhoven. The residents can all decide for themselves how their house will look like. They can also build it themselves. They come to live completely detached. They have to rent the land under the house.
Meanwhile, Laura lives in her for a week and a half tiny house† She has already discovered one disadvantage: it gets very hot there. “I bought a fan. That was actually against the mosquitoes, but it also helps a little bit against the heat.”
