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Concept
Alternative housing
Summary
Alternative housing is a category of domicile structures that are built or designed outside of the mainstream norm e.g., town homes, single family homes and apartment complexes. In modern days, alternative housing commonly takes the form of tiny houses, dome homes, pyramid-shaped houses, earth sheltered homes, residential tree houses, abandoned factories and hospitals and even up-cycled vans or buses. The motivation to create alternative homes can arise from destitution or lack of resources to buy or rent a typical home and therefore include improvised shacks in shantytowns, buses, cars and tent-like structures.
While the cost of living in an alternative house can be more economical than a traditional home, the start-up cost can be quite hefty. More commonly in the 21st century than ever before in history, alternative housing offers more functionality to many, as well as an unconventional living arrangement. Some alternative housing can be as small as while others can be as large as depending on the structure. Alternative housing, much like common housing, usually offers an area for cooking, sleeping, bathing, and an overall living space.
One of the first popular uses of alternative housing in modern times was during WWI and the Great Depression. During the Great Depression, many people ended up losing their homes. More than 15 million people were out of work at the time, and desperate for housing. Due to the vast influx of homeless people, the creation of Hoovervilles took place. Alternative housing at the time was used as a way of living to save money, and to do that, people built shanty homes. As time went on, people began to take ideas learned from shantytowns and put them to use in other forms of alternative housing.
In contemporary society, alternative housing is moving from last resort housing to an option that people choose in the face of a housing market that is getting more and more costly . With the rise of social media, more and more people were exposed to the idea of alternative housing, and its popularity grew.
Official source
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