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The original was posted on /r/documentaries by /u/SunAdvanced7940 on 2026-07-17 22:11:42+00:00.

The ‘godfather of tiny homes’ has spent a lifetime changing his mind

Amid the countercultural movement flourishing in his home city of San Francisco in the 1960s, Lloyd Kahn left what would have been a comfortable life in his family’s insurance business to forge his own path as a homebuilder. As this film from the short documentary series Portraits of Another Life chronicles, that change in direction ultimately led him to become a deeply influential thinker on the meaning and making of the modern home through his emphasis on functionality and practicality.

For his portrait, the California-based British filmmaker Emil Lozada interviews Kahn at his hand-built homestead in Bolinas, California, just north of San Francisco. Reflecting on his lifelong dedication to learning, teaching and remaining open to changing his mind, Kahn, now 91 years old, shares his views on what makes an ideal shelter, a successful life and why the two are deeply intertwined.