Meet ‘n’ Greet #1 with Raymond Kool from Klein Wonen Magazine, Holland

Looking to be inspired by tiny house living and wanting to live tiny in a house of your own here in Europe?

This Meet ‘n’ greet series is a collection of interviews from various European countries with people that have chosen the simple tiny lifestyle! 

To kick this series off we are starting with an interview from:

 Raymond Kool, chief editor of Klein Wonen Magazine. 

What is the Klein Wonen Magazine?

First of all Klein Wonen Magazine means Small Living Magazine.

It’s a free digital platform for all kinds of small living facilities. Not only tiny houses on wheels, but also prefab cabins, container homes, studios, apartments, boats, nomad tents, and vans.

We bring our still fast-growing group of readers interviews, background stories, lifestyle articles, and photo reports.

Our goal is to inspire people to think differently about their way of living and the homes they’re live in and to change the prejudices of municipal officers and politicians and housing policy influencers.

How does Holland, in general, compare to other countries regarding the regulation of Tiny Houses?

Although it’s still a long way to go in Holland I think we are frontrunners.

Building small and affordable homes are required to solve our housing shortage. More than 30% of our population is single and this number will grow in the coming decade.

More and more townships starting up pilot projects to host small houses on fallow building grounds temporarily.

This means more opportunities for people who want to live in moveable tiny houses. Not only the American tiny houses on wheels, but also prefab cabins that can be transported by trucks with low loaders.

The regulation for tiny houses in Holland is still old fashioned, but there are a lot of opportunities for townships to work out projects for tiny houses that follow the regulation.

The city of Almere is nowadays the ‘delivery room’ for new ideas about small, affordable and sustainable living. Not only for Holland, but also the rest of Europe.

They initiated the Building Expo Tiny Housing that created a small neighborhood of different types of tiny houses in the city.

Last month the whole project from A to Z, including solving the regulation problems, is published in the book Klein Wonen/Small Homes.

The text is in Dutch and English as well. 

Is it more popular to live minimalistic in Holland than other countries since you have Klein Wonen Magazine? Why is this? 

More and more people in Holland can’t afford an average home because of the high house prices. So they’re in need of more affordable houses especially young people.

They don’t mind living in a small home and even prefer this to save money for travel, experiences and living more sustainable.

So a minimalistic lifestyle is becoming more popular now for sure. Also a lot of the elderly want to change their big houses for a small homes, but most of the time they’re going to pay more for a small house. So they stay where they are.

Another problem that can be solved by building affordable small houses.

In your experience, is the downsizing movement growing in Europe? And has it in the last 5 years? 

For sure the downsizing movement in Europe is growing, but it’s still a small minority. Most of the people in Europe still aiming for a lot of money and a big house.

But little by little more people aren’t wanting to waste earths ressources and looking for causing a smaller footprint.

Living small in harmony with nature is becoming a dream for more and more people nowadays, but to be honest I think it will be a minority for decades.

Read also a Meet ‘n’ Greet #2 with Marjolein in het Klein, from the Netherlands. 
 

Future prognosis! : Will there be more Tiny Houses in Europe and alternative living solutions 10 years from now?

That’s for sure. I see projects started up everywhere in Europe, but it’s a hard fight against the old fashioned regulations and off course the prices of building ground especially in the cities. These prices are sky high and stands in the way of building affordable homes. But in many countrysides, there are a lot of opportunities for tiny houses.

I’m sure that tiny houses and alternative living will be more accepted and that there will be several communities of tiny houses and alternative living 10 years from now. If they are off-grid, I doubt.

People who want to live in a tiny house at this very moment must realize that they are pioneers and have to face many difficulties.

But keep up the good work and pave the path for the future!

Best tip for someone wanting to live in a Tiny House, but not sure if it’s quite something for they would like?

Just rent a tiny holiday home in the forest and try to leave the holiday mode and imagine to live in it permanently.

Go for a two or three-week stay and do things you should do normally. Just do some work if you can. Or go to work and come home in a holiday home for a week.

Yep, it costs a little money but it’s a lot cheaper than building a tiny house on a whim and concluding that it’s not what you expected.

Do you recommend any events or alternative living media that a Tiny House interested individuals should check out?

For everyone who can read Dutch our ‘Klein Wonen Magazine‘ of course!

It’s for free downloadable at our website and the pictures are also inspiring for non-Dutch spoken.

For the English spoken check-out the documentary ’Tiny Boundaries’ about the move of a Dutch build tiny house to Scotland.

And off-course the book ’Klein Wonen/Small Homes’ by Jacqueline Tellinga of the city of Almere.

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Thanks to Raymond Kool for sharing his perspective and for starting the Meet ‘n’ Greet Series – Tiny Houses in Europe. 

Read about off-grid Tiny House living with Marjolein, also from Holland. 

Would you like to read more interviews of people living in Tiny Houses in Europe? 

Add your email in the sidebar and I’ll let you know. 

More to come!