Design + Build a Tiny Home

An introduction to designing and building a Tiny House to start your journey towards low-impact living.

Tiny houses are low carbon, low impact, compact timber cabins on wheels. The popularity of the tiny house movement has grown as a response to changes in our climate, ecosystem and society, and the environmental and material cost of tiny house dwelling can make off grid living more obtainable.

Building tiny houses can create an accessible avenue towards living off the land, that can have a positive impact on our direct environment and your well-being.

Whether you’re considering building for extra space or accommodation, to fit a smaller budget or to live more sustainably tiny houses are a practical and achievable solution.

Over the weekend, the first day of this course gives a broad overview of materials, techniques and service choices aimed to get you to the starting point of planning, designing and building a tiny home. The second day is focused on getting hands-on and building the foundations of a (mini!) tiny house on wheels.

This is a two day course with the option of participating in just one day if you wish. Tickets are available for either Saturday or Sunday, or the full weekend.

What will you learn?

Day 1: Saturday will focus on the design aspects of a Tiny House

• Why choose a tiny house?

• Design aspects and budget

• Material choices & sourcing

• Chassis choices & sourcing

• Construction - overview of techniques, space required and timings

• Services – water, power, heat and waste systems

• Living - the practicalities

Day 2: Sunday will focus on the hands-on building aspects of a Tiny House

• Timber frame construction

• Partitioning the space

• Insulation and waterproofing

• Roofing

• Fitting doors and windows

• Exterior cladding

• Floor and interior lining

Who is this for?

• Anyone interested in building a tiny house

• Anyone keen to learn the fundamental requirements of what is needed to build a tiny house, from concept to design and build

• Those wanting to get hands-on

• Adults over 16 (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult)

Course Instructor

Simon Whitfield (he/him) is a gardener, chef, tiny house builder with 20+ years practical experience of homesteading and living from the land. His work focuses on sharing the creative practice of off-grid living through building homesteads and natural food systems. He shares first-hand experience of designing, building and living in tiny homes. Simon has designed and built domestic tiny houses, cabins, house trucks. He also has designed and installed off grid living systems for low impact living. The tiny houses he has built are stand-alone off grid homes, studios and accommodation. 

www.tinyhomecompany.co.uk
Instagram: @tinyhomecompany
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thetinyhomecompanyuk

Key Information

Date - Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th July 2025, 9.30am - 4.30pm

Location - Troed yr Harn, Talgarth. 

Arriving - We operate a car-free campus and we will meet at Talgarth Car Park at 9:30am to walk up to the campus together.

The walk from the carpark to the campus is a 35 min walk, over farmland and through woods, with a fairly steep incline at the end. 

We will walk down at 4pm, so expect to be back at the carpark around 4.30pm.

If you do not feel comfortable with this walk, please contact magda@blackmountainscollege.uk and we will arrange for you to drive to the campus.

What to bring:

• If you have any materials like off cuts of wood, you're welcome to bring them to use
• Packed lunch and water bottle
• Weather appropriate clothing that you feel comfortable working in (particularly for Sunday where we will be getting practical)
• Sturdy shoes
• Notebook and pen

How much does it cost?

This is a two day course with the option of participating in just one day if you wish. Tickets are available for either Saturday or Sunday, or the full weekend.

We aim for our short courses to be as accessible as possible by removing finance as a barrier to learn. We also have to ensure that we can cover material and teaching costs. To do so, we operate a Pay What You Can model. We ask you to select one of 5 ticket options based on your individual financial circumstances:

Weekend reduced rate ticket - £150

Weekend true cost ticket - £200

One day Saturday or Sunday only - £85

One day Saturday or Sunday reduced rate - £50

Philanthropist - Gifting a donation to the college to support future courses & bursaries: £300

Fully-funded - Free (no cost to you)

If you would like to be considered for a free place, then please send an email to magda@blackmountainscollege.uk. You will be contacted by a member of our team 2 weeks prior to the course starting. Please note that once tickets are sold out, we can no longer accept bursary applications.

Please note that spaces on all our courses are limited. We operate on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Please view details on our pricing structure here for suggestions of what rate to pay.

Refund Policy

We will refund a 50% of your ticket until 4 weeks prior to the course start. After that tickets are non-refundable. Depending on the uptake of the course we hold the right to cancel it, in which case you will be refunded. In cases of extreme weather or other unforeseen circumstances that force us to cancel the course, you will also be refunded.

Accessibility

This course is rated as 2 (less accessible) on our scale of accessibility. Read more about our accessibility policy here.

Please see our booking terms & conditions upon checkout for more information.

On Day 2 (Sunday), we will be doing some practical work around the farm buildings moving over rough ground, with steep slopes so this is less suitable for those with mobility requirements. 

We will endeavor to make adjustments where possible, please get in touch with magda@blackmountainscollege.uk if you have access requirements.