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How big a modern and well-designed home should be to accommodate all the essentials you might need for a simple and cozy life? These projects prove that tiny homes can not only meet all your basic requirements but also be contemporary-style dwellings outfitted with all modern amenities.

The idea of converting a disused shipping container into a tiny home is not something new, but Portuguese studio Madeiguincho has customized the humble metal box finishing it in wood and modified it to feature a rooftop terrace.

Based on a standard shipping container, the minimalist dwelling aptly named Cargo and located in Portugal’s Algarve region measures 6 x 2.5 metres.

Inside, there is a large room adorned with wooden decor that features a raised bed, with some storage space underneath. The Tiny home also includes a compact kitchen with a sink, storage, and basic cooking facilities like an oven and a stove, as well as a small bathroom with a toilet and shower.

The team topped the shipping container with a rooftop terrace that can be accessed via a ladder. It also features a big overhang. One of the exterior walls of the container is left uncovered, so that the home can open up to the outside allowing the occupants to enjoy the weather. Insulation and operable windows help maintain a cool temperature throughout the house.

Irish social enterprise Common Knowledge has teamed up with hemp producer Margent Farm to design a micro home intended for people affected by the housing crisis. With property prices in Ireland increasing by as much as 11 per cent a year, the team hops that the affordable solution would help those struggling to buy a house to fill in the “gap between moving out of the rental market and owning your own home.”

Named Tigín Tiny Home after the Gaelic word for a small house or cottage, the low-carbon concept comprises an oversized caravan built from natural materials. These include cork insulation, natural rubber linoleum floor tiles, and Margent Farm’s corrugated hemp cladding panels, which are made by combining locally produced cannabis plant fibres with a sugar-based resin produced from agricultural waste, making them both lightweight and highly sustainable.

According to the team, people can either buy one of the 20sqm ready-made homes at prices starting from €55,000 or learn the skills to build their own. The tiny home can be used by them for a year or two, while they are making their newly bought “forever home” ready to move into, without having to pay rent in the meantime. The team plans to open-source the designs releasing a toolkit that includes a full set of architectural drawings, a materials list with suggested suppliers, and a price scale.

Each prefabricated home contains two floors. The lower level includes a window seat that doubles as a bed, as well as a kitchenette, a toilet and shower, and a storage area or workspace. Other design details include large windows to provide the dwellers with a real feeling of space, an eco-composting toilet and a customised electrical system that can be used off-grid or connected up to mains power.

French company Baluchon has designed a tiny house design that is founded on a double-axle trailer but looks like a poetic traditional North American house. Named Miss Twain Tiny House after famous author Mark Twain, the micro home boasts a red cedar finish and an aluminium-clad roof but what truly makes it stand out is a tiny idyllic porch, which still has adequate space for a chair.

The porch leads to the living room, which is fitted with a sofa bed for guests, a coffee table, a wood-burning stove, and an operable table. Adjacent to the living room is a compact, yet functional kitchen that is equipped with a sink, fridge, drop-down table for two, two-burner propane-powered stove, microwave, and a large storage unit. The house also includes a small bathroom, which contains a shower and a toilet.

The Miss Twin Tiny Home features two loft spaces, accessible via a ladder. The larger loft room functions as a bedroom, while the smaller one over the living room is intended for storage.