Shadowing Practice: NEVER TOO SMALL Australian Apartment Style Tiny Home -27sqm/291sqft - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creating lesson...
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This particular location we flooded in October.
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This building was sitting atop this concrete structure with floodwaters surrounding the building.
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Yeah, it looked like a houseboat. Yeah.
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So it was a pretty breathtaking sort of image.
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The House is located in Rosebrook on the outskirts of Port Fairy.
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It's in a beautiful floodway, it was Gunditjmara land, and it sits in the ruins of an old flour mill.
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This house is nine meters by roughly three point three meters, which gives it a total floor area just under thirty square meters.
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With the mezzanine level, you get a total floor area of forty square meters.
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It's designed with a fully offgrid solar system with batteries and a backup generator.
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And it's designed largely to be a passive house.
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The road restrictions mean you can't transport anything on a freeway that's over five meters tall.
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So that does restrict these buildings somewhat to a certain ceiling height, which can make the spaces feel a bit more cramped.
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That's why we designed this building to have an expandable roof section.
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The way that this telescopic frame works is the wall panels fold in on themselves and then the roof can be expanded by operating a wheel .
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Which winds a cog system that pushes the whole roof structure up by twelve hundred millimeters Then the panels fold back down to complete your wall sections.
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The cyprus that we clad, the building in are felled old cyprus windbreaks from local farmlands. They're normally pushed into a pile and burnt.
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We decided to mill the timber and clad our building in it.
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It created both a beautiful esthetic, but also meant capturing a lot of carbon, which we thought was pretty important.
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We found the concrete slabs in a paddock.
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Its original purpose was to hold up cow troughs.
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But they seem perfect as a floating staircase.
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We also scrounged metal mesh from an abandoned pig shed.
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And the beauty of that is that you can scrape your dirty boots off before entering the house.
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The design was intended to feel like a New York style apartment that appropriate for a regional setting.
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The design also explores the use of materials that have been recycled or restored.
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The double height of the lounge room gives it an additional sense of space.
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The lower section is encased by steel glass windows.
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The glass section of the living area juts out from the rest of the building slightly.
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When you're sitting on the couch, you're sitting more in nature pushes you out into the environment.
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Copper and ply louvers run horizontally along those windows, giving the opportunity for ventilation to come out through the building.
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We have pivot doors on the south and western sides of the lounge room.
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So in summertime, you can open all the doors and have maximum airflow.
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The western side, you can actually just sit on the ground and dangle your legs over the edge.
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The raised mezzanine gave us an opportunity to capitalize on some extra storage, as well as separating the living area from the kitchen area.
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And it gives you ample storage under the floor for the things you don't use on a daily basis.
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So the kitchen's got a two burner gas cooktop, an extra sized sink, because the sink has to perform a number of functions in a small area.
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It's got a relatively small fridge and ample storage covers.
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The above sink drying rack means you're not wasting valuable bench space.
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You can put the dishes straight up out of the way as soon as you wash them.
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The sliding door operates as the bathroom door.
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But it reveals this hidden storage component.
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We chose to use a glass splash back so you can still see the beautiful texture of the spoted gum and again.
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The pig mesh was used for some shelving to bring in that rustic feel.
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The kitchen table has piano hinges that run along both sides for easy access.
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And just to alleviate some space while you're working away at the kitchen.
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The ladder, which runs to the mezzanine area, can be wound up using the same mechanism that warns the roof up.
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So once you wind that ladder out of your way, the dining space becomes much more ample.
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And the advantage of having a raised living area is you can sit on that surface at the dining table.
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We felt that the Home Office was a very important aspect of any house moving into the future.
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That's why Nick's design is really clever.
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Home office space in the mezzanine that utilizes the space perfectly because you can sit on the floor with your feet dangling on this beautiful plinth and get amazing views out of the windows at the same time.
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And then we decided to put a bit of a bookcase easily accessible to right there and chose to have a wall and a bookcase and a storage case that broke up the office from the bedroom.
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The ridgeline of the roof is shunted off center so that you could get this walkable space through the mezzanine area.
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The bedroom has everything you'd expect a wardrobe, a cupboard and drawers underneath the bed.
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We've got a mixture of fixed glaxing and louvers in the bedroom.
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The fixed glazing gives you an amazing view and the louvers create excellent crossflow ventilation.
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The colors is still dark.
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To create that sense of the outside is more important.
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While also making you feel very cozy. Yeah.
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In the bathroom, we chose to go the bluestone cobble.
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These cobbles, they're basically offcuts from the factory that they tumble and get these beautiful rounded edges.
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They make the bathroom feel quite luxurious, but also very earthy and understated.
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It creates a very nice experience when complemented with the slats of spotted gum on the ceiling.
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The windows are pretty large, so it makes you feel as if you're showering in the outdoors. For the shy, we've got these beautiful louvers that you can then close and feel as if you're less exposed.
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We also used brass elements that have been recycled for the handrail, toilet holders and in the vanity area.
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Every surface you touched and felt really made you feel like you were connecting to an earthy sort of experience.
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The plumbing has a composting toilet and a gray water retention system.
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The design philosophy of small is that we just want to shift the attitude towards living within your means.
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As we evolve as a community, we are going to understand that bigger is not better in a small space.
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Not only is it better for the environment, but it's also better for human interaction and your interaction with the outdoors.
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Thanks for watching.
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To receive updates on our latest episodes, please subscribe and click the notification bell.
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And if you're an architect or designer with a project we could feature, please share it with us at never too small dot com slash submissions.

About This Lesson

In this lesson, learners will engage in IELTS speaking practice by exploring a unique Australian apartment style tiny home, which presents an intriguing blend of modern design and sustainable living. The context of the video offers valuable insights into architectural design, eco-friendly practices, and unique building techniques. By shadowing the speaker's descriptions, learners can enhance their vocabulary, improve their pronunciation, and develop their ability to discuss complex topics confidently and clearly.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

  • Passive house - A building design that minimizes energy use and maximizes comfort.
  • Expandable roof section - A building feature that allows the height of the roof to be increased.
  • Mezzanine level - A partial floor between the main floors of a building that adds usable space.
  • Off-grid solar system - A renewable energy system that operates independently of the main power grid.
  • Recycled materials - Items that have been restored or repurposed for new construction or design.
  • Ventilation - The process of allowing fresh air to enter a space while removing stale air.
  • Rustic feel - A design aesthetic that emphasizes a natural and aged look, often using raw materials.
  • Workspace - An area specifically designed for completing work tasks, such as a home office.

Practice Tips

To maximize your speaking skills, consider utilizing shadowing techniques by listening closely to the speaker and repeating after them. This shadow speech method is particularly effective for mastering intonation and rhythm. As you practice, pay attention to the speaker's pacing; they articulate their ideas clearly but at a conversational speed. Aim to match this tone as you shadow. You might find it helpful to play the video in segments, repeating those portions until you feel comfortable. The more you practice, the better you'll become at discussing similar topics in English. Additionally, using phrases from this lesson will prepare you for possible IELTS speaking questions related to housing and architecture, enhancing your ability to engage in meaningful discussions. Remember, shadow speak consistently offers a pathway to fluency, so make this lesson a regular part of your learning journey.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.