The International Residential Code has a Big Vision for Tiny Houses
February 1st, 2018
Appendix Q Tiny House is the first set of building standards for dwellings ever incorporated into a model code. The story of how the appendix came to be is a great example of how the Code Council works together with stakeholders and industry professionals to develop model code standards for new and innovative technologies as they emerge.
At the hearing, however, one person had testified in “friendly opposition” to the proposal: Martin Hammer, an architect who had co-authored the IRC’s straw-bale construction appendix. Following the hearing, Hammer received a call from his friend Andrew Morrison of TinyHouseBuild.com, a builder and educator who had helped Hammer write the appendix. “Andrew asked if I thought we could submit a different proposal,” Hammer recalled.
Tiny-house advocates across the country reviewed the draft language and donated funds to pay for Hammer’s time as a consultant and to help Morrison and others travel to Kansas City to attend the public hearings. Morrison also received helpful feedback from the International Code Council, which he incorporated into the draft.
Special Thanks To David Eisenberg
”My main role was in working with the proponents in strategizing and preparing for testimony at the Public Comment Hearing, as well as testifying there, and then helping strategize and develop outreach materials for the online national vote that followed our success at the hearing.”
Together, Martin and I brought to the tiny house community our years of experience in developing code change proposals for alternative materials and systems and our relationships with the codes community. ” ”We were able to offer practical guidance on the code development and code change processes, and how best to work with that system and code officials from around the country who make the final decisions about what goes into the codes.”
David Eisenberg
About David Eisenberg
David Eisenberg is co-founder and Director of the Development Center for Appropriate Technology (DCAT) in Tucson, AZ. His three decades of building experience range from the on-site troubleshooting of the construction of the cover of Biosphere 2 to building a $2 million structural concrete house, a hypoallergenic structural steel house, and masonry, wood, adobe, rammed earth, and straw bale structures. For over a decade David has led the effort to create a sustainable context for building codes. He served two terms on the Board of the U.S. Green Building Council where he founded and chairs the Building Codes Committee. He was vice-chair of the ASTM E-06.71 Subcommittee on Sustainability for Buildings for five years. David has presented workshops, seminars, keynote addresses, and lectures at dozens of international, national, and regional conferences and lectured at universities in the U.S. and abroad. David is on the Advisory Board of Environmental Building News. He is co-author of The Straw Bale House book and has written dozens of published articles, forewords, book chapters, and papers.
