In this short read, which is part of Dwell’s 25th anniversary package, Stassa Edwards recalls the 2010s internet—when “nearly every popular niche Tumblr blog was turned into a book”—and how Zach Klein’s escapist photographs at Cabin Porn helped fuel an off-the-grid cabin and tiny house phenomenon. (I can attest that this is true: At the end of 2013, Cabin Porn and other feeds like it inspired me and my husband to donate all of our belongings, move to the country, and build a tiny house on wheels, which we lived in from 2015 to 2016.) Klein, previously a Dwell CEO, discusses this period, when he himself lived in a picturesque cabin in upstate New York, and why the fantasy of getting offline and living simply in the woods appeals to so many people.
The appeal of Cabin Porn might seem obvious at this moment—dreaming of simple living is ubiquitous. While social media has turned to an extremist embrace of tradwife influencers selling us a romanticized image of simple living, mainstream publications—this one included—peddle in cabin porn. Sleek photographs of cabins are less obviously politically charged than raw milk and the return of measles, but both share the same seductive appeal, the aesthetic of yearning: an escape from late capitalism’s ceaseless demands of labor and attention.
More picks about home and housing experiments
There Is No Place like Home, Whatever That Is
“According to our writer, home is both longing and belonging.”
Can a Big Village Full of Tiny Homes Ease Homelessness in Austin?
“One of the nation’s largest experiments in affordable housing to address chronic homelessness is taking shape outside the city limits.”
I Disconnected from the Electric Grid for 8 Months—in Manhattan
“On May 22, 2022, I began an experiment. I unplugged everything in my apartment, with the goal of drawing zero power from the electric grid for one month.”
A Cage by Another Name
“Under the guise of housing, LA’s tiny home villages serve to contain and banish unhoused people.”
‘Tiny House Hunters’ and the Shrinking American Dream
The dream of homeownership, now with composting toilets.
The Tiny-House Revolution Goes Huge
To understand the tiny house movement, Mark Sundeen attends its big annual gathering—the National Tiny House Jamboree in Colorado Springs—to learn from its luminaries.
