Harvard University Promotes Simple Living, Small Structures Though Getaway Cabin Rentals

Harvard University graduate students launched Getaway, a company that designs, builds, and rents out micro cabins to residents looking to escape modern living and check on how to live in a tiny house. Getaway is located within the Harvard Innovation Laboratory, a multidisciplinary program supporting entrepreneurship and innovation.

Harvard business student Jon Staff and law student Pete Davis founded the startup in April 2015 with the help of design students from the Harvard Graduate School of Design., Harvard official website reported. The company is now operating six mobile, wooden cabins ranging from 15 to 20 square meters.

The Harvard team said that Getaway is building tiny houses, placing them on beautiful rural land and letting city dwellers rent them by the night. Staff said that the cabins are moveable but they leave them in the same place for extended periods, Dezeen reported. In line with this, the company is looking for landowners who are willing to let them lease a portion of their property.

The company started with their first cabin that was placed in southern New Hampshire. It became popular and so, the company built two more cabins that can be rented in the Boston area. Recently, they created three additional cabins in New York.

Harvard University graduate students' Getaway cabins are part of the tiny-house movement, which advocates simple living in small structures. Other micro dwellings in the United States include a series of rustic cabins on an Outward Bound campus in Colorado and a collection of luxury micro homes by Cocoon9, with the smallest one starting at 15 square meters.

It takes about four weeks before a cabin is built, Harvard University graduate students revealed. Wood, pine and birch plywood are some of the materials used to build the cabin. Each unit contains the same plumbing, electrical and propane heating systems, which has a sink, a stove, a cooler, an electric toilet and a shower with hot water.

Harvard University graduate students' Getaway cabins named the cabin models after a team member's grandmother. Getaway currently has three models.