inventing your space: non-traditional housing trends

We have explored several readings on the significance associated with styles of houses, with the psychology of house and home, with creating non-conventional spaces that fit a particular whim or fancy or lifestyle or economic situation or environmental situation. Now it is your turn to explore this current trend.

The subject could quite possibly be as big as a house, but the focus here is going to be much narrower, and the following template will help you focus. organize, and develop your paper as long as you are reading carefully and following instructions. This shorter essay will be useful later if you decide to opt for this topic for your final project.

Papers must be between three to five (3-5) full pages (not counting pictures or the Works Cited page). To insure your pages are truly "full" pages, I recommend they go over a little (so a full four-page paper will have a little bit more than four pages of text; it's good to be safe). Any paper less than three (3) full pages will not be accepted; a paper less than four (4) full pages will be trying for a "C" maximum; papers that are at least four (4) full pages will be trying for a higher score. Yes, this has gone up quite a bit since the Too Much Stuff Exercise; this is a fairly typical length for an essay at college level. Don't worry; you will have much more to write about, including lots more examples you will be looking up and quoting.

There are six parts to this assignment, but please do not number them or put headings for each section. This should be arranged as an essay. You will open with a paragraph, and each of the other sections will be in paragraph form, one following the other (not on separate pages). Some of the "parts" (explained below) may be more than one paragraph. There should be smooth transition sentences leading from one paragraph to the next.

NOTE: this has one more section than Paper 1 because it has two introductory paragraphs; you'll see.

There are a couple of ways to start this paper (your opening paragraph, about 1/2 - 2/3 of a page). You could open with a description of someone in a very unusual living situation related to this paper (maybe getting up in the morning from a converted bus and showering outdoors under a garden hose). Or you could open with some thoughts on what makes a house a home (you could even quote from one of our readings this week, but be sure if you do to quote directly and follow that with a parenthetical citation, and make sure the work has a Works Cited entry). Then your transition sentence should suggest that in many cases people are turning away from traditional housing to embrace very distinctive alternatives.

Follow this with a paragraph that features three examples different types of alternative houses that you locate by doing your own research. Make sure they are quite different from one another; you are trying to show the range and diversity of alternative houses in this paragraph. For each include a picture, a note on what kind of house it is, and a brief (two to three sentences each) description of some unique characteristic of the house. If, for example, you have "Tiny houses, which are typically houses, portable or not, that are under 400 square feet. To make up for what they lack in size, tiny house designers often work in several clever space-saving and multi-purpose features, such as collapsible dining tables." on your list, you should include next to it, or after it, a picture of a tiny house. For this assignment you don't need to document the source of the picture. Here's a good website to begin with, but there are many more: 9 Unique Alternative Housing Ideas

NOTE: this second introductory background section should be short, no more than one page.

This next part (probably 2-3 paragraphs with 2-3 unique examples looked at in more details than the shorter "list" of paragraph 2) will put your paper in context. This is the main body of your paper, and it will be the longest part of your paper, at least two meaty paragraphs with a lot of information. About 1/3 of this section should be direct quotations (followed by parenthetical citations) from things you look up, and they must be sources YOU look up; you may not use our course readings in this section). Begin the first of these paragraphs with the following transition, word-for-word (yes, you do need to complete the sentence with an example):

Alternative housing is not a new idea; they go back as far as...

Then follow with some really unusual historical examples (at least two, things like cliff dwellings or the Thoreau cabin or the Sears mail-order catalogue build-your-own-house kit, or Hoovervilles or ?) from your research in one or two paragraphs. Be sure these paragraphs are a blend of your explanations (do not use "I" or "me" here, by the way) supported and illustrated by interesting details directly quoted and parenthetically cited from your research sources. I sure hope you have been reading the Lecture material.

Part four: After you are done writing about some unique historical examples, use the following transitional sentence to lead into the other contextual section on why alt houses are currently popular (so you are going from old to new--that is the logic here); again, copy this word-for-word, and it should be a the beginning of a new paragraph:

There are several reasons why alternative houses are so popular nowadays.

Follow this with another 2 or 3 meaty paragraphs showing 2 or 3 compelling reasons this is currently trending (eco-consciousness? cost savings? mobility? whatever you discover). Somewhere in these paragraphs include a couple of documented quotations with a correct parenthetical citations with some thought-provoking or provocative or amazing ideas from some of your sources (obviously, you want sources with lots of thoughtful text, not just simple websites with a lot of images and brief labels). Find people talking about why they want to be off the grid or find information on exact cost savings--things like that.

Part five: Then describe the following in one relatively-short concluding paragraph (about 1/2 - 2/3 of a page). If you could design any style of alternative home (and you can invent something entirely new), what would it be and why? Consider fantasy, economics, ecological concerns, materials/location, etc. What would make that space feel like "home" to you (aside from the people in it)? Would it be the space? The light? The furniture? The colors? Or something else? You will NOT quote from sources in this conclusion, but you will want to put in a few exact details. By the way, it IS appropriate to use "I" or "me" in this last paragraph.

Finally, create a correctly-formatted MLA-8 Works Cited page (Works Cited pages always start on their own page, but they are numbered with the rest of the paper), that includes an entry for each of the sources that you quoted and cited above.


NOTE: You absolutely must include pictures in the essay; they do not count as pages of text, but they do enhance your work.

sample assignment

Check out the Sample Student Papers in this week's reading folder in the Files section of Canvas :)