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Brattleboro Festival Taps Into Big Interest In Tiny Homes

An aerial shot of a pop-up tiny house village
Liz Lavorgna, Core Photography
/
Courtesy
A pop-up tiny house village is one of the highlights of the annual Tiny House Fest Vermont in Brattleboro. The 2018 festival will take place Saturday, June 23.

For the third year running, Brattleboro will be the site of a festival dedicated to tiny houses.

Lisa Kuneman, a co-founder of the event, said the idea for Tiny House Fest Vermont came partly from her own interest in dwellings that are generally 400-to-450 square feet, or smaller, in size.  

Kuneman says 5,000 people attended the first festival in 2016.

“We were really surprised,” Kuneman said of the turnout. “We just did not see the degree of enthusiasm coming. We knew we were interested, and then we found out a lot of people are interested.”

This year’s event is scheduled for Saturday, June 23, and it will feature a village made up of 30 tiny houses.

There will also be a daylong series of presentations, ranging from the nuts-and-bolts of design and construction to the role of tiny homes in making communities more resilient.  

While there are professionals in the field of tiny house manufacturing and design, the movement includes a large contingent of do-it-yourselfers — and the festival is also geared to help them.

“People can bring their designs and get some feedback from pros,” Kuneman said.

She said there's clearly a fascination with the small dwellings, and even for those who can't imagine living in one, there are ideas that can be adapted to any living situation.

“They make us think differently about the spaces we live in, and they make people think creatively,” Kuneman said.

In one sign of the interest in tiny houses, Kuneman said the Tiny House Fest has partnered with Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Waitsfield to create a tiny house certificate course, which launched this year. According to Yestermorrow’s website, the course is already full.

Steve has been with VPR since 1994, first serving as host of VPR’s public affairs program and then as a reporter, based in Central Vermont. Many VPR listeners recognize Steve for his special reports from Iran, providing a glimpse of this country that is usually hidden from the rest of the world. Prior to working with VPR, Steve served as program director for WNCS for 17 years, and also worked as news director for WCVR in Randolph. A graduate of Northern Arizona University, Steve also worked for stations in Phoenix and Tucson before moving to Vermont in 1972. Steve has been honored multiple times with national and regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for his VPR reporting, including a 2011 win for best documentary for his report, Afghanistan's Other War.
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