Canadian design firm Twelve Cubed believe a twelve foot cube is all you need for a home. Priced at CDN$24,500, the building can be placed on your existing plot and be used as a guest house, a rental property, a studio, or whatever else you can fit into a 12×12 cube (The building is this size because most sheet wood is sized in multiples of 4 feet).

The cube contains a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen with dishwasher, microwave and oven, and plenty of natural light, which Twelve Cubed believe is ‘everything you need to make your life simple, modern and convenient’.

James Stuart, who created Twelve Cubed, has been living in his design for months and believes it is a good solution for the challenges modern lifestyles throw at us:

I moved in almost two months ago now, having decided that I needed to prove to people that I could live comfortably in the Cube, even in Canadian winter weather. I rented my house, put most of my stuff in storage, and began to adapt to my “cubic” life. I have more storage than I need, so there is plenty for two people. When I go shopping I am buying groceries for a few days at a time, not a couple of weeks. I ripped my CD’s and DVD’s to a terabyte hard drive with lots of space left over.

Last months power bill (propane and electricity) combined was $31.00. The average North American 1 bedroom apartment produces 5 tons of CO2 per year. A Cube will produce 0.8 tons a year. Its shows you care.