Yanko Design

A 473-Square-Foot Tiny House That Actually Fits a Family of Four

Most people picture a tiny house as a romantic retreat for one or two people with very few belongings and an even smaller grocery budget. The Zenith by Vagabond Haven is here to argue otherwise. Built by the Sweden-based design studio behind some of the most thoughtfully crafted small homes in Europe, the Zenith is a non-towable tiny house that takes aim at a demographic the tiny house movement has largely ignored: families. Not just couples, not just digital nomads, but actual families with kids, toys, and the basic human need for a door that closes.

At 11 meters long and 3.45 meters wide (about 36 by 11 feet), the Zenith stretches the definition of “tiny” just far enough to make it livable for more than one person. The total living area clocks in at 44 square meters, or roughly 473 square feet. That’s generous for a tiny house, and the layout makes every inch count.

Designer: Vagabond Haven

The Zenith is an evolution of Vagabond Haven’s earlier Sky model. Where the Sky kept things minimal, the Zenith brings in a second sleeping space in the form of an overhead loft, a dedicated flex room that can serve as a walk-in closet or a child’s bedroom, and a larger kitchen designed for actual cooking rather than survivalist meal prep. These aren’t small upgrades. They’re the kind of design decisions that signal a shift in who the tiny house market is really meant to serve.

The exterior is finished in engineered wood with an aluminum roof, which gives it a clean, modern aesthetic without the sterile coldness of a shipping container conversion. Big windows and skylights run throughout the interior, keeping the space feeling open even when square footage isn’t exactly on your side. Natural light is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, and it shows.

Inside, the main bedroom sits on the ground floor, which is a meaningful detail for anyone who’s ever tried to navigate a steep loft ladder at 2 a.m. The bathroom doesn’t cut corners either. It features wet room-approved walls from Fibo panels, a glass shower cabin, a generous countertop, and space under the vanity for a washing machine. Vagabond Haven also gives buyers a choice between flush, composting, Separett, or incinerating toilets, which speaks to the range of customers they’re designing for, from sustainability-minded homeowners to those building on remote land without conventional hookups.

Storage is woven into the design at every turn rather than treated as an afterthought. The floor plan has a logical flow to it, the kind that only comes from spending real time thinking about how people actually move through a home. The flex room in particular is one of the smarter elements, giving the layout breathing room for families at different stages of life.

On the utilities side, the Zenith can be configured with a solar system, a rainwater harvesting setup, a heat recovery ventilator, and electric or gas hot water heating. It’s a house that can run largely off the grid if that’s what you’re after, or connect to standard services if you’d rather keep things conventional. Vagabond Haven offers eurowide delivery, which means this isn’t just a Scandinavian fantasy but a genuinely accessible option for buyers across the continent.

Pricing starts at around €53,380 before VAT, which puts it well below the cost of a traditional home in most European cities and in the same ballpark as a high-end campervan, except with considerably more dignity and a door that locks from the inside.

The tiny house movement has spent years proving that you can live with less. The Zenith makes a slightly different case: that you can live with less space without actually giving up the things that make a house feel like a home. For families who’ve been watching the tiny house trend from the sidelines and wondering if there’s something in it for them too, the Zenith might finally be the answer they’ve been waiting for.

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