A series of tiny homes on the outskirts of the city amidst the lush green cover might sound like a description from one of your favourite fables but it is in fact made real by Arsh Bansal, a Bengaluru-based architect and entrepreneur.
Growing up in the hills of Mussoorie, when Arsh moved to the city, he missed the greenery and the sight of the hills. He also noticed how people who live in the city crave for staying amidst nature. This observation made him come up with the idea of Tenpy, a travel startup that builds tiny homes in Karnataka.
The name “Tenpy” is a combination of two words: “tent”, which highlights temporariness, and “canopy” for permanence.”
He made the first two glass-roof cabins out of shipping containers to let the guests experience nature up close. These eco-friendly tiny homes are an effort to combine wanderlust with sustainability offering a soulful experience right in the middle of the forest.
These tiny homes have all the basic amenities like living space, toilets, bed space and a kitchenette.
Interestingly, he named the houses after renowned authors or books. His first project ‘Rusty’ is named after Ruskin Bond’s book Rusty Runs Away. Besides, tiny homes encourage digital detoxification by providing spaces without WiFi or TVs.
After building tiny houses out of shipping containers, they also experimented with certain other locally available, sustainable as well as prefabricated structures and materials to build the houses. These sustainable homestays are almost 70 per cent moveable except for the remaining 30 per cent where brick and cement were used.
Currently, they have six homes, and they are expanding their venture to Maharashtra.
Watch what goes into making these eco-friendly homes:
Edited by Yoshita Rao
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