Visit Madeiguincho

[nelsonic]

As noted in #21 (comment) Madeiguincho are based in Aldeia de Juso and have built several tiny houses: https://www.madeiguincho.pt/tiny-houses

https://www.madeiguincho.pt/tiny-houses/baleia-tow-built

They have also done a few tree houses:

https://www.madeiguincho.pt/contact

19 minute drive: https://goo.gl/maps/Pim3S3TT3sGRkgfg9

@iteles + @carolrmc how do you feel about paying these guys a visit? 💭

[nelsonic]

Yesterday we visited Madeiguincho and it was very insightful. (see below) 👇
We had a tour with Nicolas (architect not listed on the website).
He showed us 4 tiny houses in various stages of construction and a few models in the workshop.
In the workshop we spoke with João Filipe (Architect and Carpenter) who was doing work on a CNC miller to make curved window frames. They didn't have a large format CNC machine for making furniture or cutting panels. 💭
We also briefly spoke to Rui Peixoto Master Carpenter in the workshop which is very impressive.
Finally once we had completed our tour we spoke to Gonçalo Marrote the owner (CEO).

The lumbar yard and carpentry workshop had belonged to Gonçalo's grandfather.
The land it's sitting on is roughly 1 acre of prime real-estate.
Just this land would cost €500k+ today. Totally inaccessible to anyone starting out (without inherited wealth).

google.com/maps/place/38%C2%B043'10.1%22N+9%C2%B026'19.2%22W/@38.7186288,-9.4388535

Their yard has been adapted to build tiny houses, this is an example of an in-progress unit:

We toured a complete unit that belongs to a customer who is currently searching for a plot of land:

It was functionally decorated and felt spacious inside.

They make mini/scale models of their Tiny Homes:

Insights

1. Inheriting an epic wood workshop must be amazing! ❤️ (This is what our kids will get!)
2. A tiny house building yard + workshop doesn't have to be this big; there is a lot of wasted space.
3. Quality control is mega important in building at any sort of scale; there were many "rough edges" on the "finished Tiny house we viewed.
4. They don't have any way of incorporating direct customer/user feedback
   into the subsequent iterations of their designs. This is something we can have from day 1.
5. Their selection of materials is good but definitely budget.

One of the trailers for a future Tiny Home had the panels stored on it for it's construction:

Their predominant construction material is Glued laminated structural panels ("glulam") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glued_laminated_timber which is commonly used in construction.
It looks like ply wood but has fewer/thicker layers:

Their trailers are all made in Spain: http://www.todoenganches.es

This strikes me as odd considering there is a PT-based manufacturer/supplier of trailers see: #28

Observations

• Limited vertical integration: they don't make their own trailers and as such they don't use the trailer frame for any practical purpose like securely storing batteries, water tanks or storing firewood. We can do much better.
• Base price €50k with no optional extras. Again we can build for less and include more integrated things as "standard".
• 3-6 months design + time slot wating time.
• 6-8 weeks build time

@iteles + @carolrmc what else did we learn? 💭

[nelsonic]

https://www.madeiguincho.pt/about