By: Jack M. The world of 2003 was different from the world of today in many ways, not the least of which was the cost of securing a mortgage. Interest rates were more than double what they are today, and…
New Harvard start-up lets you have a tiny house experience with no strings attached
BY: MATTHEW CHIN Perhaps you’ve thought about ditching the concept of the traditional house and living in a tiny home, but you haven’t got the nerve to try it out. Maybe you’re pretty sure that an off-the-grid lifestyle is for…
For 511 blissful days this couple hitchhiked from Bulgaria to India without smartphones
BY: JESSICA BEUKER All too often the raw, untamed aspects of travel get overlooked by smartphones, GPS and tablets. Screen addiction has created an invisible barrier between the natural world and us. Just try and remember the last time you…
Why I quit my high-paying corporate job to live off-grid lost in a desert eco-village
BY: THE PLAID ZEBRA I graduated from a top school, came from a well-off family, and got a high-paying corporate job. Today, I’m what some like to call a hippie. Two years ago, I was living in Dubai, in an…
Dutch company designs office-caravans to let you work on the road, off-the-grid, or in the wild
BY:MATTHEW CHIN In the Netherlands, a country with one of the highest workplace satisfaction rates in the world according to monster, one company plans to introduce natural scenery and nomadism to the office. Amsterdam-based KantoorKaravaan, which translates to Office Caravan,…
New adventure company lets you test your survival skills by renting a deserted island
BY: MATTHEW CHIN Maybe you watched Tom Hanks struggle to stay alive on a deserted island in Cast Away and thought “small potatoes,” or thought the entire cast of hit TV series, Lost, were massive wussies. Well guess what—it’s time…
Dutch architect is building off-the-grid homes in the middle of the forest (Photos)
BY: MATTHEW CHIN Dutch architect, Raimond de Hullu, is planning on building off-the-grid homes in the middle of an urban forest. His goal is to bring inexpensive eco-friendly homes into densely populated areas. The home design called “OAS1S” utilizes a…
Photographer hitchhikes across Europe to take powerful portraits of self-ruling people
After being swept away in the flow of constant emails, only to be caught in the dead river of early morning traffic, many of us stew and question the overwhelming pace of our lives. Do I really want my life…
Watch 200 average citizens re-build their life off-grid to own a house, not a mortgage
BY: ROB HOFFMAN Photo by: Eric Valli for original photo series called “Off The Grid” Where off-grid living once called to mind visions of reclusiveness, loners and dirty hermits, its reputation has since settled in to the golden throne of…
Cabo Polonio is a completely off-grid village of hippies, fishermen and star gazers
BY: MATTHEW CHIN In Cabo Polonio, located on the eastern coast of Uruguay, sits the perfect beachfront getaway that is completely off the grid. The remote village dates back to the 1960s, where hippies, squatters, and fishermen have been building…
27-year-old designer quit Ralph Lauren to live in a van and build the treehouse of your dreams (Video)
Foster Huntington got into the blogging game in 2008, and has since amassed nearly a million Instagram followers on what is quite possibly America’s most inspiring photo and video blog. Though he was making moves as a successful designer for…
This city is using tiny house villages to fight homelessness
BY: TYLER FYFE It’s 5:30pm on a Friday and on the sidewalk a line is starting to build outside of the Good Shepherd Centre. Frayed blue tarps clipped to backpacks, and calloused hands clutch soggy cardboard with bleeding marker ink.…
Hippies, drugs & street art: at this lawless commune citizens build their homes on the oceanfront
BY: MATTHEW CHIN Off the Eastern coast of Denmark, in the heart of Copenhagen lies Freetown Christiania, a hippie commune with its own government and unique set of laws. Potheads, hippies, artists, idealists, and non-materialists are all welcomed in this…
8 reasons why living in a small space is the key to having a big life
An emerging movement of tiny house enthusiasts are working to reconcile the mistakes of generations past, where giant houses were once embraced as the ultimate symbol of achievement only to leave their owners as empty as the spaces they occupied.…
This family sold everything they own to visit 400 national parks in an Airstream Bus
BY: TYLER FYFE Thousands of dollars in renovations and several trips to Ikea later, the Works family found that although their life now looked like the picture-perfect images of home-décor magazines, between the marble-countertops and stainless steel appliances there seemed…
The DIY greenhouse of the future offers a year-round private oasis
BY: ROB HOFFMAN Francis Gendron recently launched a DIY sustainable greenhouse guide that makes it possible for anyone to construct their own indoor garden-house, built entirely out of recycled and natural materials, and powered entirely by renewable sources. Gendron’s guide…
Peaceful photos of eco-villagers will make you dream of going off-grid
BY: CONNOR BRIAN Often a sense of struggle settles in when we find ourselves surrounded by the daily routine of urban life. Crammed into a sea of vacant faces in the early morning rush hour, sometimes I can’t help but…
You can now buy Tesla Energy’s battery that could let you independently power your house
BY: DANIEL KORN The amount of people using solar energy to power their households independently has been steadily rising in the US over the past decade or so. Data from the US Department of Energy shows that the number of…