The Tiny House Archive Bundle: Celebrating the Early Years
24 Plans + 4 Books (2008–2019) - $47
24 Plans + 4 Books (2008–2019) - $47
For those who might not know me, I’m Michael Janzen. I spent the years between 2008 and 2019 designing tiny houses. (Photos circa 2008.)
Since stepping back in 2019, I have worked in the technology sector by day, while continuing to design, create art, and write by night.
I am returning to the tiny house design studio in 2026 with renewed energy. But before I begin posting new concepts—which will focus on wider, 10-foot tiny homes and longer footprints—I wanted to do something special with the work that started it all.
Over the next few days, I will open the "archive" one last time.
The archive includes 20 tiny house plans, 4 cabin plans, and 4 ebooks on tiny house design
If you missed these designs during my first decade of tiny house design, this is the last opportunity to add them to your collection.
Best,
Michael Janzen
You might notice that many of the designs below are named after towns in Northern California: Westport, Caspar, Albion, Philo.
I was born in Mendocino County and grew up just south of there. My grandmother lived in a tiny cabin in Redwood Valley, and we would visit her often. After she passed away, I lived there after college, renovated the cabin, built a tiny house-sized pottery studio, and worked as a potter. That was in the early 1990's.
Those years spent in that small space, surrounded by the architecture of those historic coastal towns, left a mark on me. When I began designing tiny houses in 2008, I named my designs after the towns I knew and loved—places with a history of masted sailing ships and timber towns.
The designs below represent that history.
One of the things that originally drew me to this work was the puzzle of it—the challenge of packing maximum utility into the smallest possible footprint. I once challenged myself to design a house just 9 square feet to test the absolute limits of human habitation.
I called it "Nine Tiny Feet." I never built it, wish I had. The floor space was 3'x3' and it included a kitchen, desk, seating, toilet, and shower. The sleeping loft, (not included in the square footage due to ceiling height), extended over the porch. My design is pictured on the left and faithfully rendered by Gemini. The plans for this no longer exist, I can't find them anywhere. If there is interest, I will redraw them from memory.
Even if you never intend to live in a micro home, there is immense value in studying how they work. Designs like these demonstrate extreme space optimization and multimodal living—concepts that apply to homes of any size.
Perhaps most importantly, I designed the hoise plans below for regular people to build. Unlike standard architectural blueprints, which can be cryptic to the untrained eye, these are presented more like assembly instructions. My goal was to demystify the construction process—showing you exactly how a complex roof is framed, how a dormer is attached, and how a bay window comes together step by step.
Whether you build one of these specific units or just use them to learn, they are designed to make the dream of building your own home more attainable.
As I close the chapter on this archive, I am looking forward to the new work beginning in 2026.
My focus is shifting away from the coastal "Mendocino" aesthetic you see in these older plans toward a style that is more Modern and Mid-Century Modern.
I am also setting new constraints for myself. I plan to limit all future fixed-foundation designs to 500 square feet or less, simply because I enjoy the challenge of making small footprints livable. For tiny houses on wheels, I intend to release designs in pairs—offering both a standard 8.5-foot road version and a wider 10-foot version of the same floor plan. I am also launching a YouTube channel to document the design process.
This won't be limited to tiny house plans. I plan to share the "how" and the "why" of the design work, including my experiments with 3D printing physical models of these homes. You will likely see me tackling some "extreme" design challenges just for the fun of it—exploring how to build on a cliff face, a mountain top, or in a desert with no water.
It is a way for me to sharpen my skills and share ideas with you in a more dynamic way.
I hope these legacy plans serve you well, and I look forward to seeing you on the new channel.
Warmly,
Michael Janzen
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