TINY HOUSE – A Guide To The Landscape Of Minimalist Living

Prague-based Studio Marvil is one of the most successful and longest-standing graphic design firms in the Czech Republic, having worked for a wide range of clients and thousands of projects since its founding in 1995. Composing tailor-made visual solutions that capture the hearts of clients and target audiences, the studio has won a series of prizes –also being the first graphic design studio in the Czech Republic to receive a prestigious Red Dot Design Award. One of the studio’s recent projects, the TINY HOUSE publication, also won 2nd place for best book of the year in the national Phoenix Award competition and sold 1,500 copies in its first two months.

The book’s not meant as an ode to modest living but simply aims to broader the views and understanding of the reader through interviews with people who have designed, built, run, or lived in small houses themselves, specifically in the Czech and Slovak Republics.

The 272-page book TINY HOUSE, designed by Jana Vahalíková from Studio Marvil, delves into a topic that is sure to grow in popularity in the future: small-house living from different angles. And while we all might not end up necessarily living in tiny houses, the restrictions and struggles of the housing crises of the future will certainly escalate the need and interest in well-designed and high-quality mini-houses. The book’s not meant as an ode to modest living but simply aims to broader the views and understanding of the reader through interviews with people who have designed, built, run, or lived in small houses themselves, specifically in the Czech and Slovak Republics. The book showcases 35 tiny houses, together with interviews with architects, designers, and tiny house owners, offering an interesting overview of the minimalist way of living.

Choosing papers that are both high in quality and style, while keeping things green –Gmund Bio Cycle is a natural do-gooder!

Made with a Japanese sewn binding with green thread, the die-cut on the cover in the form of a house creates a unique look. The book cover is made with GMUND Bio Cycle / Chlorophyll – Blattgrün 300 g/m², while the inner pages are MUNKEN Lynx Rough 120 g/m². Gmund Bio Cycle is made from plants, is compostable, and thus creates nutrients for new plants – the perfect ecological cycle – but Gmund Bio Cycle goes one step further. It is made from up to 50% of the resource-saving fibers of wheat straw, grass, cotton, and cannabis, making a statement for ecological action and offering environmentally conscious companies clear added value in design, feel, story, and credibility. Munken Lynx Rough is an exclusive, natural white, matt satin, wood-free, and uncoated paper with 1.4 times the volume. It is perfect for high-quality printing projects such as four-color books, catalogs, corporate papers, or magazines. 

The first edition of the book was published by ARCHIZOOM and the second by Idealab, s.r.o./Radek Váňa, while being printed by HRG Litomyšl. You can find your own copy of the book here (ISBN 978-80-908740-1-5).