Cars are going all-electric, so why not tiny homes? That was the thinking of Dan Dobrowolski, founder of tiny-home builder Escape, a company that to date has created a Neutra-inspired prefab, portable sheds, and even a tiny home village in Florida that saw a surge in demand during the pandemic. Now, the company is taking its designs fully electric. “It’s the way forward,” says Dobrowolski. “This is more important than ever.”

With sustainability top of mind, Dobrowolski and his team devised eESCAPE, a new line of all-electric tiny homes on wheels that can be powered with a standard wall socket, a solar setup, or an electric truck or car. The line’s three models include the eOne, the eVista, and the eVistaXL, which start at $43,600 and range in size from 200 to 350 square feet of living space.

The three home designs, created by Architect Kelly Davis with a Scandi-modern aesthetic, are insulated with Greenguard gold-certified recycled materials, capped with steel roofs, and clad with sustainably grown rough-sawn wood siding with a dark stain. Inside, floor-to-ceiling white birch makes for bright, warm, and textured interiors. “We wanted them to reflect natural beauty, and to capture a greater sense of space,” says Dobrowolski.

According to Dobrowolski, the LED lighting for the interiors operates with minimal power. With high-efficiency air conditioning and heat pumps for heating and cooling, the homes are designed to withstand a variety of weather conditions.

The eOne unit features an 11-foot-high ceiling and an eight-foot-long upper walkway that leads to a second loft area, while the floor plan for the eVista and the eVistaXL models were designed around a system of expansive windows that connect the tiny homes to the outdoors. “Light and openness is everything,” Dobrowolski says. “They’re the key to designing small spaces.”

When it comes to tiny home design and livability, Dobrowolski is as concerned with practicality as he is sustainability. “Given the transient nature of life these days, especially with the pandemic, it seems more important than ever that people are able to be mobile and simply move as needed,” he says. “Sustainability is a no-brainer, but availability, flexibility, portability, and affordability can be a lifesaver.”

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Kelly Davis

Builder: Escape