South Carolina High School Students Design, Build Tiny Homes for Homeless

A group of architecture students at a Greenville, South Carolina high school are learning lessons in empathy and collaboration while helping to construct a tiny home that will eventually become home to a member of their community. 

The Tiny House Collaborative started more than seven years ago in Catherine Smith-Gates’ classroom at the Fine Arts Center. Back then, it was just a conversation she started with her students about how “as architects we have an innate ability to help facilitate a solution to the problem.”

Smith-Gates later invited a representative from the Greenville Homeless Alliance - an organization “fiercely committed to reducing homelessness in Greenville County” - to talk to students about people who have experienced homelessness.  

The collaborative has since gained sponsorship help from architectural firm Craig Gaulden Davis and construction company Clancy & Theys whose professionals helped students at the Fine Arts Center “further their understanding of home design and construction as they conceptualize tiny home layouts and build models.” 

Last week, building on their first tiny home began with high school students from nearby Bonds Career Center assisting in the build. 

“There’s a lot that has gone on in the process,” Catherine Smith-Gates told Southern Living about the years-long journey they've been on to this point.

“I don't have words for how exciting it is to get to see them experience the actual building of a project.” 

At 168-square feet, the “Murphy House” features a fold-down bed, custom cabinetry, a two-burner stove top, and a convection oven/microwave/air fryer combo unit. The unit also has several sustainable features like operable solar powered skylights, operable windows placed strategically for ventilation and a mini-split HVAC system. 

The design, Smith-Gates said, was strategic. 

“At the beginning of our project, we do interviews with people who have experienced homelessness to make sure that what we were designing and what the students were working on would suit their needs,” she said. 

Having those conversations helped the student designers to understand the impact that housing can have for someone’s health and overall wellbeing.

Students are also getting hands-on experiences in potential careers, Anne Lee Buck, Coordinator of Community Collaboration for Greenville County Schools said. 

“Students involved in this unique project are “getting their hands dirty at the high school level, and actually doing the work that they might be doing in a field that they choose,” Buck said. 

When completed, the tiny home will go on display as an educational exhibit at Roper Mountain Science Center and then likely elsewhere around Greenville County.  After its tenure as an exhibit, the Murphy House will be set on permanent foundations in a new tiny house community to be the home of a Greenville neighbor.