The trouble with simple living is that, though it can be joyful, rich, and creative, it isn’t simple.
Doris Janzen Longacre
Everything is both simpler than we can imagine and more entangled than we can conceive.
Goethe
Joys come from simple and natural things: mists over meadows, sunlight on leaves, the path of the moon over water.
Sigurd F. Olson
Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.
Plato
Our life is frittered away by detail…simplify, simplify.
Henry David Thoreau
Thoughts from Jim;
A well-designed little house is like a larger house with the unusable parts removed. Such refinement is achieved through subtractive design – the systematic elimination of all that does not contribute to the intended function of a composition. In the case of residential architecture, everything not enhancing the quality of life within a dwelling must go. Anything not working to this end works against it. Extra bathrooms, bedrooms, gables and extra space require extra money, time and energy from the occupant(s). Unessential luxury items are a burden. A simple home, unfettered by extraneous gadgets, is the most effective labor-saving device there is. This is a Tiny Green Cabin
Subtractive design is used in processes ranging from industrial design to civil engineering. In machine design, its primary purpose is demonstrated with particular clarity. The more parts there are in a piece of machinery, the more inefficient it will be. This is no less true of a home than it is of an engine.
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