How much space do you really need?
Adrian Giacca doesn’t think it’s very much.
Giacca is working on a tiny home, permaculture community concept and he wants to bring it to Revelstoke.
“This will provide a very specific person an opportunity to live intentionally and within community,” he said. “I find that is something I really need and strive for in my life.”
Giacca studied landscape design when he finished high school, with the goal of designing skateboard parks. With an education in his back pocket he collaborated with other organizations in his hometown, Oxbridge, Ont., to raise $450,000 for a new park to be constructed.
“That practice of understanding what people need, what is useful for the town, learning design, working with workshops and then making a presentation that is convincing to the stakeholders to invest in their community was a huge learning experience,” he said.
Since then he has been self-employed, working remotely as a landscape designer and travelling across North America in a van, learning about permaculture, tiny houses and eco-communities.
“People kept telling me I was living the dream,” he said.
It was then he began to realize that the low cost, minimal personal belongings lifestyle is intriguing to people.
The last stop on Giacca’s trip was Revelstoke; he fell in love but his van wouldn’t handle the winter, so he tried to find a place to live.
“Every post I looked on there was some 100 people interested in the place,” he said.
So he settled in Kamloops, where the company who hires him regularly is based.
“During that process I’ve really started to work on my concept of tiny living and really working and developing an opportunity for people to experience that kind of lifestyle but without making all of the sacrifices that would be necessary to do it,” he said.
Giacca figures Revelstoke is the perfect place to test out his idea, a property with 5-10 tiny houses and shared amenities such as gardens, kitchens and ever bathrooms depending on what the needs of the community end up being.
“I look at this place as a dynamic community of individuals that are waiting for something like this,” he said.
Giacca has posted on Revelstoke online communities to gauge interest. He said he was “taken aback by the level of enthusiasm.”
His first step was to talk to the city planners to determine how to proceed. From them he learned that they need as much information as possible.
So Giacca is researching and recruiting interested parties.
He said that the ideal situation would be to develop for people, not for profit, while taking into consideration sustainability as well as affordability.
“It’s not just thinking about the little village, but the impact that the village can have on Revelstoke,” he said.
But at the end of the day the vision for the community will develop with the people that live there.
Right now, Giacca is trying to get a better understanding of what people would like do see and who would like to live in such a community. Singles? Small families? Seniors?
“These questions will guide the design and what is needed for the property,” he said.
He is also looking to secure a property for the project.
What Giacca is interested in most is permaculture. If and when development begins, they won’t go in and clear all of the natural vegetation, but rather incorporate it into the design of the community.
“Especially with a project like this, the housing is just a very small portion of the design,” he said. “It is about land management and how people interact with space and communicate with each other, which is key. So landscaping plays a huge part in this project.”
Giacca is picturing not only gardens and solar power but also rainwater collection and public education spaces.
“With a project like this it…questions what we really need in life and allows me to design space that is functional, intentional and beautiful, it’s a place that we can call home,” he said.
Get in touch with Giacca via email at adrian@remotelandscape.com. Join the email list for the project at https://mailchi.mp/3c56ec464917/revytinyhome
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