Led by principle architect Patrick Lam, the firm aims to challenge our perceptions of smart homes while exploring the many ways in which thoughtful design can maximize even the smallest living spaces. Lam brought his own experience living in a small tenement apartment in the infamously cramped district of Kowloon to this bright, airy, and absolutely brilliant renovation for a young family.

The narrow unit benefits from a wall of windows on one side facing a view of beautiful natural scenery. At first glance, the living area appears oddly empty. There are no appliances or furniture to be seen aside from an entertainment console and a television along one wall. Panels in the floor are the first clue that the space contains more than it appears to, concealing all manner of storage, pop-up tables, and more. All visible surfaces are covered in plywood and timber veneer for an even cleaner look.

“Eric and Lory moved to Hong Kong from Taiwan many years ago and have a son; Eric needs to travel frequently throughout the country, and Lory is a flight attendant,” the architects explain. “Their lack of time spent at home means they often need grandmother to [come over and] take care of the children. Eric and Lory often talk about the scenery and homestay in Taiwan, and how they miss them so much.”

“Sim-Plex lifts up the entire living room with a wooden platform so that every corner can also come down at will. In addition to a large amount of storage, the platform also hides the intelligent lifting coffee table, creating a gathering point, sometimes as a tea ceremony, and sometimes as a toy’s playground. The dining room is made up of an open kitchen with a quartz stone high-top dining table and two arc-angle storage chairs, so no matter [where you are] while cooking or dining, you could also enjoy the scenery outside the window. The windowsills of the two rooms are surrounded by wooden frames to match the natural scenery.”

Ancient principles of feng shui and the latest in smart home gadgets coexist peacefully throughout the home. The architects also made use of natural materials, Zen philosophies about layouts that promote the proper flow of energy, and adaptable features that can meet the family’s constantly changing needs. A sliding partition separates the living room and kitchen either for privacy or to create a fourth bedroom, and the master bedroom is a peaceful refuge full of built-in storage.

With Smart Zendo (named after zendo, a place for Zen meditation), Lam shows that high-tech home features like voice-activated lights, speakers, air conditioning, motor-powered furniture, and projection screens can actually be kind of poetic.

He notes that: “Haiku, the Japanese poetry, is deeply influenced by Zen. There are ‘seasonal languages’ in the haiku. The Smart Zendo in this case is just like the seasonal language, and the four seasons of the scenery outside the window are introduced into the room to make the perfect merging of home and nature, so that the emotions of the homestay can be fermented.”

The post Transforming Hong Kong Apartment Makes Smart Home Tech Downright Zen first appeared on Dornob.

If you’ve been following our posts about designing small spaces over the years, you probably already know the answer to this problem. A combination of built-in cabinetry and hideaway furniture that’s easy to access and put away can make even the most challenging tiny spaces livable, and that’s exactly what K-Thengono Design Studio did for their “3-in-1 Living” apartment design.

The designers gave the couple the master bedroom of their dreams, clean and simple with plenty of storage, closets, display spaces and room to walk around the queen bed. The bathroom is a standard size, as well, so they didn’t have to sacrifice any functionality there. They also managed to fit a small bedroom for guests or future children. But as you can see in the original floor plan, that didn’t leave much room for anything else.

K-Thengono’s alteration incorporated additional built-in storage into every room and created a streamlined cabinet system that takes up an entire wall of the remaining space. Hidden behind the minimalist white cabinet doors is everything you’d find in a bigger apartment, including a fold-down dining table and two fold-down benches, a couch hidden in its own little nook, and tons of room for all the couple’s stuff. Some of those cabinets even become displays when various components are in use, like the dining set. Others remain closed to hide things the couple doesn’t necessarily want to show off.

“When all the panels are closed, the clutter is hidden inside, the living space allows some extra activities like yoga and home workout to take place,” the designers say. “Both the master bedroom and bathroom are connected with a translucent pivot metal door to maximize the daylight penetration. Sliding panels are used to hide unorganized closet space in the rooms or allow the veneered wooden rack for displays. Functionality is key to the various design strategies, making every piece of furniture as efficient as possible for multiple uses.”

The wall opposite the cabinet is almost entirely mirrored, including the doors to the bedrooms and bathroom, to create the illusion of additional space. With a sliding glass door and balcony on the end and all that white, there’s plenty of daylight to go around, and the view becomes the focal point. It seems like the couple isn’t much into cooking, either, since the kitchen remained the same size before and after, located just inside the front door.

Another thing to note: there’s no loft involved in this small-space renovation. Lofts are often a great way to make use of vertical height, which often just ends up being wasted space. Sometimes, when ceiling height allows, they’re placed on top of new built-in cabinetry units like this one to free up even more floor room. It’s a smart tactic, but not everyone wants or is able to climb up into a loft to go to bed. But this design demonstrates that you really can make a tiny apartment work even if you treasure your bedroom as a spacious, private sanctuary.

The post Hidden Fold-Down Furniture Makes This Ultra-Narrow Jakarta Apartment Livable first appeared on Dornob.

This apartment looks nothing like any cruise ship suite we’ve ever seen before. In fact, if not for a few tell-tale details, you might think you were looking at a well-appointed studio apartment in Manhattan. Rendered in soothing pale blue, the rounded built-in structures brimming with transforming features reference Le Corbusier’s modernist Unite D’Habitation housing project in Marseille, France, which was itself inspired by midcentury ocean liners.

“As a jumping off point for the project, we looked to Modernist architecture’s fascination with nautical design and cruise ships, which optimized for small-scale living, modular organization, and efficiency,” says Chen. “In particular, Le Corbusier’s belief that a home should be regarded as a ‘machine for living,’ his own multifunctional apartment and atelier at the Immeuble Molitor, as well as his fascination with cruise ships as models for self-sufficient, utopian apartment complexes, like his famed 1952 Unite D’Habitation, offered inspiration.”

The clients are an older couple who use the residence as a getaway for themselves and, occasionally, their adult children. They wanted the ability to expand the space from a one bedroom to a two bedroom as needed using extra tables and beds that fold away almost imperceptibly. Hidden behind surface panels are the components of extra sleeping spaces, two baths, a dressing room, a sitting area, a trunk room, and a “landing zone.”

The dining area converts into the second bedroom on demand, with the cantilevered folding bed tucked behind a fold-down table. When all four guests are present, a sliding screen divides the apartment to create privacy while maintaining access to the common living area, which itself faces a wall of glass that looks out to the ocean.

Chen adds that “concepts of motion and multi-functionalism underpin all aspects of the residence’s organization and aesthetic. In addition to disappearing tables and beds, MKCA has incorporated hidden lighting and integrated appliances that can be boldly revealed or neatly tucked away. Continuous aluminum ribs help conceal panel divisions, doors, and appliances, and also impart a sensation of height in the relatively low, eight-foot tall space.”

“Finishes across the apartment are either impervious or designed to patina over time. This dichotomy extends to the furniture selection, whose surfaces are highly tactile, shifting from polished metals and stones to more plush materials such as mohair, velvet, and suede, and serve as sculptural elements within the space.”

It’s obvious from the deft execution of this project that Chen is accustomed to designing small spaces. Micro living is a common theme in his firm’s portfolio, including the brilliant “Unfolding Apartment” and a 12×16-foot micro-housing concept designed for Häfele. Building on a ship presented a few new challenges, like restrictions on potentially flammable materials, but the resulting combination of warmth, simplicity, and nautical style is a refreshing take on both small spaces and floating residences.

The post Pied-a-Mer: Small Residence Onboard a Yacht Transforms to Accommodate Guests first appeared on Dornob.

The hotel was a popular place to stay in its day, set within the historic city center close to the Matriz Plaza and the Public Market. But in recent years, demand for small, affordable apartments has grown so much, it only made sense for the owners to renovate it into a “co-living building,” where residents enjoy both their own private spaces and larger communal areas, making the sacrifice of personal space worthwhile.

The owner of this particular unit wanted a space that was somewhere in between permanent and temporary lodging. He commissioned the architects to create a “bed and breakfast” feel in an apartment that can either be rented out Airbnb-style or eventually used as a full-time home. Adding yet another layer of difficulty to the project is the fact that the apartment is oddly shaped. A bed, living area, kitchen, bathroom, and storage all had to be packed into its tiny 30-square-meter footprint.

The angled exterior wall, which features lots of windows overlooking the city, informed the bulk of the design. The architects created a large bank of floor-to-ceiling built in storage following the same angle. Painted white to match the other walls and ceiling and complement the textural parquet wood floors, this massive closet nixes clutter, and it’s really what makes the whole thing possible.

“The search for parallel lines resulted in the project’s concept,” the firm explains. “A large closet, which is summarized in a multifunctional white volume, hides the plan’s ‘zigzag’ and includes a bathroom, kitchen, as well as space for clothes and groceries. In line with this volume, the lighting, in a smooth industrial black profile and directional spots, accompanies the main flow of the apartment, drawing an ‘L’ and illuminating the way.”

“The shelves to the right of the front door contain the television, plants, books, and decorative objects. The window, which faces the street and the front facade of the building, was supplied by a wooden ‘frame,’ which finishes the peeled walls and a curtain with a shelf accompanying the entire wall of the window. This shelf was designed to accommodate plants, which would bring a little green into the house, since the view from the window is predominated by the concrete jungle of Porto Alegre’s historic center.”

This apartment is a great example of how built-in storage can completely transform even the smallest apartments into livable environments. The added open shelving creates a nice focal point, and the plant shelf above the windows brings in some color and vitality. A simple room divider screen could even be used to create a little extra privacy and separation between the work and sleep areas without cutting off the flow of air and light, if you so desired.

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In Barcelona’s Eixample district, architects Anna and Eugeni Bach turned a beautiful but highly challenging apartment into a cozy live/work residence where everything has its place. The corner flat has an unusual floor plan featuring four diagonally angled rooms, including a trapezoidal kitchen. There’s minimal square footage to work with, but the historic building features some absolutely stunning architectural details, like tray ceilings, a marble fireplace, and ornate wooden doors.

The owners want to use the apartment as a study for the next 15 years, at which point they’ll retire and live there. That means it has to be both multifunctional and comfortable to live in, while also offering the possibility of hosting their future grandchildren. The living room, entryway, and bedroom extend from the back wall at a 45-degree angle that’s known as “chamfered,” a layout that’s not uncommon in Barcelona’s older neighborhoods.

The biggest and most successful intervention is the plywood built-in cabinetry extending along the flat’s one straight exterior wall, from the kitchen into the living room. The architects envisioned it as a home for all of the apartment’s “services,” including the kitchen cabinets and appliances, bookcases, closets, bathroom, and even a set of built-in stairs leading up to the uppermost level of storage space. Made of smooth, pale plywood and devoid of most visible hardware, this cabinet brings a contemporary feel to the home and unifies its two main rooms.

At the same time, dynamic new flooring subtly separates each space from the next while maintaining a cohesive look. In the kitchen, marble tiles follow the angle of the built-in cabinet, butting up against the straight line of the patterned hallway flooring. The living room, bedroom, and entryway all have their own unique colors and patterns, too, contrasting the clean feeling of the white walls and wooden accents.

“The rest of the house is left practically intact,” say the architects. “The floors, ceilings, and carpentry that were kept in good condition are recovered to establish a careful contrast with the service furniture. A contrast that brings together both the two directions of the chamfer, and the two times of intervention in the history of the house.”

Even if the stairs of the cabinet don’t exactly lead anywhere, since there’s no loft, they still add an interesting graphic element to the design, as does their minimalist ceiling-mounted railing. The cabinet doesn’t just disguise all the little things that would otherwise create too much visual clutter, it anchors the whole apartment. Little design details like the leather pull on the bathroom door and ornate brackets on the mirror above the fireplace are just icing on the cake.

The post Plywood Built-Ins Transform a Tiny Barcelona Studio Apartment first appeared on Dornob.

That might seem like it’s simply not enough space to store all your possessions, let alone enjoy time in your home, but the secret here is all in how you use the limited square footage. Micro apartments utilizing clever space-saving tricks like lofts, built-in storage, and transforming elements can meet just about all of your needs — as long as you stay on top of keeping the place tidy, of course. 

The 22m2 Apartment by A Little Design demonstrates how this can work for a resident who’s a single busy urban professional. The owner of the flat commissioned the architects to renovate the old 236-square-foot space with roughly 11-foot-high ceilings to complement her lifestyle, comfortably fitting in everything she owns and accommodating her habits without breaking the bank.

Some architects would accomplish this by packing furniture and other items into every available square inch of floor space, but this client wanted to leave almost the entire living area open so she could exercise and freely rearrange the furniture. That left a window nook and minimal space along the walls for the designers to work with, but the results prove that they certainly were up to the challenge.

Unsurprisingly, A Little Design prioritized making full use of the ceiling height by adding in a sleeping loft above the kitchen and bathroom. Though there’s only enough room up there to crouch, sit, or lay down, it’s still plenty suitable for sleeping, accessing some of the storage spaces, and even using a desk built into the wall. The stairs contain two shoe storage cabinets, and also hide the television from view when it’s not in use.

Despite the space limitations, the client also wanted to find a way to fit in some crucial functions: lots of clothes storage, a washer and dryer, a kitchen you could actually cook in, a dining table that could accommodate a guest or two, and a bath tub. After traveling abroad for work, all she wanted to do was come home and have a hot bath before getting a good night’s sleep.

The architects explain: “Firstly, the shower was replaced with a bath, and the washer was moved to the kitchen. Because in Taiwan the gas can not be piped into a house without a balcony and a small electric heater can not provide sufficient hot water for a bath, we adjusted the layout of the toilet to make room for a storage water heater, and a sliding door with a mirror which not only makes the maintenance easy but also amplifies the space visually.”

“Fixed furniture such as the kitchen cabinet, the wardrobe, and the shelf are attached to the wall to fully utilize the height and avoid aisles. The wardrobe is below the shelf due to the higher frequency of use, but a part of the shelf still can be accessed conveniently from the mezzanine area.”

“The tatami area and cabinet alongside the window make full use of the alcove and also provide ample storage. There are two wooden tables alongside the wall in the living room that could [also] be a long bar table, which economizes the room and can be combined in the other direction to be a dining table. Therefore, the empty space is flexible for different needs, and makes the small flat less cramped.”

Lots of bright white paint, pale wood, and ample natural light from the windows visually enlarge the micro apartment, while clutter like clothing and electronic items are all kept behind the doors of the built-in wardrobe and cabinets. A swing-arm lamp and a library-style ladder are two small touches that make a big difference, too, taking up very little space but moving easily when needed. The overall result feels clean, orderly, and anything but cramped.

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When a space feels cramped, drab, and dated, it can be hard to know where to begin. Commissioned to update a dreary Primrose Hill apartment, London-based firm Amos Goldreich Architecture arrived to find 1970s interiors divided into four small, dark rooms: a living and dining area, two bedrooms, and a kitchen that was hardly bigger than the bathroom. This kitchen was also located smack dab in between the two bedrooms, separated from the living room by the bathroom and a hallway. This made the social areas of the flat feel disconnected, and introduced unnecessary noise and disruption into the private areas.

Knowing that an open plan layout would help bring in daylight from the beautiful bay window in the living room, the firm moved the kitchen to the location of the former bathroom and created an opening in a structural wall to connect the two spaces. They also merged the former kitchen in the back of the apartment with one of the existing bedrooms, creating a master bedroom with an improved layout and two external windows.

Not only does this new arrangement enhance the flow of traffic throughout the apartment, but it also allowed the architects to add a second bathroom to the smaller guest bedroom, with a slot window bringing in even more daylight from the other room. And while the kitchen is still quite small, it’s far more functional, enabling social interaction and the addition of new cabinets and other storage space.

The team explains: “Energy-efficient lighting was installed, as well as new plumbing and underfloor heating throughout, to add aesthetic uniformity and reduce clutter. All windows were replaced with double-glazed, timber sash windows. [We] also designed storage solutions and joinery items, including a floating sideboard in the living room, walk-in wardrobes, storage for utilities, and doors with overhead windows to let light into the rooms.”

“The selection of materials was kept to a minimum so that the flat would feel ‘streamlined’ and not too busy,” they add. “This restriction was echoed in the choice of color palette to enhance the space in terms of size and fluidity. White-washed oak flooring was laid throughout, except in the bathroom and WC. The bathroom was tiled in white marble, while the guest WC is fully tiled in white hexagonal mosaic. All the walls and joinery are painted white. Layers of color were added through the choice of loose furniture.”

The before and after images of this London apartment are also a testament to the power of paint. It’s amazing how much fresher and brighter the spaces feel after a new coat, with lighter flooring, marble surfaces in the bathrooms, and a few mirrors enhancing that revitalized mood and helping the entire home feel much larger than it did before.

The post Before and After: Impressive Tiny Apartment Transformation in London first appeared on Dornob.

A new piece of furniture by designer and architect Volodymyr Dereznichenko does just that, taking the concept of a window seat and pairing it with the compact size and rounded shape of the tiny apartments in Tokyo’s beloved Nakagin Capsule Tower (built in 1972). The most iconic example of the Japanese avant-garde movement called Metabolism, this capsule building has gone on to inspire countless hotel designs around the world.

The creator of the building, Kisho Kurokawa, always stressed that the biggest benefit of the Nakagin Capsule Tower was its adaptability. More specifically, he explained that individual capsules could be added, removed, and updated as necessary to keep up with the times, with each one boasting a 25-year lifespan. Unfortunately, Kurokawa didn’t anticipate the fact that the capsules would prove too costly to replace. Today, many of the building’s 140 individually owned units have fallen into disrepair, while others have been abandoned altogether.

When a crowdfunding project called for ideas to renovate one of the units, Dereznichenko responded with this concept. It “leans into” the most recognizable aspect of the building, he explains, which is its rounded windows looking out onto the city and the Tokyo Bay beyond. Each one is perfectly sized to accommodate a lounging resident.

The “Capsule” design is a piece of furniture custom-shaped to fit into the walls of these apartments. Dereznichenko explains that back in the 1970s, technology took up a lot of precious space inside the 107-square-foot living cubes. But thanks to the wonders of modern tech, we can now fit all sorts of functions into incredibly compact packages, allowing the window unit to incorporate speakers, chargers, and more. Its light, sound, and air conditioning features are all controlled by an accompanying smartphone app.

“The resident is able to adjust (metabolize) the space depending on one’s preferences,” says Dereznichenko. “The resident, when moved in, receives instruction on how to set up space, making it, in a sense, the electronic device itself because the truly futuristic concept of a capsule home should not be omitted.”

The designer calls “Capsule” an “allegorical spaceship,” helping to make dilapidated yet unique and promising apartment units feel livable again. In the custom-built apartment version, the piece includes built-in storage space, while smaller standalone units demonstrate how they could be used even without a window, just to get a bit of personal space. Each one features a circular privacy shade that can be opened or closed as little or as much as the occupant desires.

While rounded window seats are often built right into the walls, “Capsule” proves that a bit of imagination and some carpentry skills could net you a custom circular window nook for just about any space. And who says your window even has to be round? Place it up against a spacious square window, and you’d never know the difference when looking at it from inside.

Nakagin Capsule Tower image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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Of course, densely-populated cities — and micro-unit buildings — are nothing new. Ultra-compact urban housing has always been a less expensive option for people who need access to jobs and resources in big cities but can’t afford to live in larger houses or apartments. But as housing gets more expensive overall and larger units are subdivided into studios to help meet demand, more of us will have to learn how to downsize our lives.

Faced with the prospect of living in a micro-apartment, the first question you might ask is “but where would I put my stuff?” Most of us aren’t minimalists, and whittling down our possessions to the bare minimum is pretty much as hard as it sounds. Single-room apartments also present challenges when it comes to working from home, entertaining guests, and having children. The key to making small spaces work for a wider variety of people is to work in more adaptable layouts and multifunctional furniture pieces.

The Richmond Apartment by Melbourne-based Tsai Design is a perfect example of how this can be done. Tasked with creating a spacious home and office in a 376-square-foot (35-square-meter) one-bedroom apartment, the multi-disciplinary firm managed to produce a result that was fresh, modern, airy, and uncompromising on quality. Most importantly, it’s not cluttered — far from it, actually, thanks to a series of clever built-in and sliding elements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3yHLikvjPU

“The design is in support of the tiny house movement,” they explain. “The design questions the notion of living in excess; in the number of belongings, as well as the size of living areas. The client bought a tiny 35-square-meter one-bedroom apartment without a working kitchen. The challenge [was] to refurbish the unit with clever interventions to create a generous living condition.”

About two-thirds of the narrow space is painted white, all of it facing the apartment’s only windows. The other third is anchored by new wooden surfaces on the floor, walls, and ceiling, creating the illusion of additional space. Not only does this area house a new galley kitchen and plenty of multipurpose built-in storage, but it also offers a series of shallow closets that divide the kitchen from the bedroom.

The apartment has cabinets, drawers, and work surfaces galore, providing lots of places to hide objects that would otherwise make the space feel busy. Crucially, there’s a “home” for just about everything, from bottles of wine and kitchen implements to shoes and umbrellas. The wood adds warmth to the space and gives it a unified appearance — one offset beautifully by black marble accents. Mirrors on the opposite wall make the space seem a lot larger than it is, while window seats provide the inhabitants with a connection to the outdoors.

Above all else, the most important aspect of Tsai’s design is its ability to transform. The flexible main room can act as a living area, study, office, or dining room. Tabletops fold down, televisions appear from behind hidden panels, and an entire dinette for two pops right out of the kitchen wall, complete with flat-pack stools. Take a really close look, and you’ll find that there’s also plenty of room for books, plants, dishes, clothing, decorative items, and even a bicycle.

The post Small, Smart, and Super Functional: This Micro-Apartment is Packed with Space-Saving Features first appeared on Dornob.

Are you the “ONE”? The single who perhaps just graduated and is ready to start a career but cannot afford an urban apartment? Then you might need a temporary, portable house that can be built in just one day.

In response to Amsterdam’s tough renter market (a scarcity of tiny apartments with exorbitant rates), Dutch firm Moodworks Architecture created the Heijmans ONE project to offer a solution to singles looking for affordable and sustainable temporary housing. Heijmans ONE’s target group are single household, well-educated, 25-to-35-year-old professionals. Amsterdam is not alone in its dire rental situation. Most European cities have an extreme shortage of affordable apartments for rent.

The homes were designed to give off a positive aura via lots of light and a sense of space, high ceilings and even a view. They can sit on privately or city owned vacant lots that would otherwise be a bit of an eyesore in the urban environment due to their derelict states. Aside from offering young renters a housing solution, they upgrade the city: The new homes could aid in “attracting new cash flows, […] social and community binding” as well as addressing safety issues. Of course, they can be transported via truck and placed virtually anywhere.

The energy-efficient, narrow prefabs measure 484 square feet, and come complete with large living room, kitchen, bathroom, separate bedroom and little patio. Their structure is solid wood with solar panels creating their own energy. Cost is 700 euros (circa $760) a month.

“As a designer, I believe prefabricated architecture can beautifully balance quality, experience and economic feasibility,” says designer Tim van der Grinten. “The prevention of a homogenous ‘Construction Site Trailer’ complex was one of the biggest challenges in this type of movable housing. How can we give the occupant a sense of individuality? Not just by switching the box volumes, this calls for a varied housing landscape that subtly makes space for variation. The architecture of this compact house is characterized by natural materials, space, openness and identity. It is a clearly recognizable property that you can make your own.”

“It is a space a young single person can be proud of. By linking a basic ground-floor module to an asymmetric roof module, the opportunity to create a varied architectural ‘roofscape’ is evident. The idea of the private house is in this way identified, even if it is part of a larger row of terraced houses. The distinctive design form attracts people, with its archetype somewhere between the mundane and the well-known beach houses or holiday houses. Since the property itself – still to be developed – is placed on build lots, the architecture is designed in such a way that it does not give the feeling of a ‘wild’ or natural environment, or the feeling that it does not belong here.”

More at heijmans.nl.

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Is college dorm-style living for adults a viable proposal for affordable housing in overcrowded cities? A micro apartment complex in Seoul offers bedroom-sized private units that connect to communal areas, and can be combined into two or more units for couples and families. Songpa Micro Housing by SsD Architecture encourages residents to socialize with each other, fostering a sense of community.

Many micro apartment complexes tend to be provisional, essentially just offering a place for singles or new transplants to crash at night without ever really feeling like home. One-room apartments packed in together can be cold and impersonal, with residents just passing each other in the hallways. This kind of approach could hinder micro apartments from being seen as a comfortable, long-term housing solution, especially as residents’ life circumstances change over time.

At Songpa, residents can gather in the ground-floor gallery space that functions as one big living room, as well as basement-level and second-floor communal areas. A micro-theater in the stairway to a cafe offers places to sit and relax. Many of these spaces are connected visually thanks to courtyards, skylights and lots of glass.

Couples can connect two neighboring units via semi-public open bridges and balconies, and the functions of each apartment shift at the flick of a wrist thanks to operable walls concealing the flip-down beds, tables, kitchens and bathroom facilities.

More from the architects

“Units can be used for differing programs such as galleries or work spaces. This flexibility allows occupants to live in the building longer and thus more sustainably as they will not have to move out with changing situations. Finally, the micro‐auditorium / cafe on the ground floor and basement are spatially linked to the units as a shared living room.

“While the zoning regulations require the building be lifted for parking, the resulting open ground plane can be constantly reprogrammed for differing events such as performances, art openings, or gatherings. Pedestrian traffic is pulled from the street down through the micro‐auditorium steps, connecting city, building, and residents to the exhibition spaces below.”

The post Micro Apartment Complex Offers the Best of Dorm-Style Living first appeared on Dornob.

In Spain, Miel Arquitectos and Studio P10 set out on an experiment in shared micro-living. They began with a 65 square meter Barcelona apartment and turned it into two functional living, working, and sleeping quarters.

The layout of the Salva46 apartment is straightforward and simple: one private unit at either end of the apartment, and a shared living area, kitchen, and dining area in the middle.

Each unit has its own separate bathroom, a small desk, a double bed, and ample storage space. The apartment’s high ceilings allowed for small lofted living spaces to be constructed above the beds. They are accessed by wooden ladders and edged by drawers which create a very secluded, private room-in-a-room.

The idea behind the apartment was to create a hybrid living space that’s somewhere between staying in a hotel and renting a room on Airbnb or other holiday home rental arrangement. The space is comfortable like a real home and offers plenty of comforts, but it’s small enough that it wouldn’t use up your entire vacation budget.

The apartment’s interior is a pitch-perfect mixture of traditional and modern. Exposed bricks covered with white paint are accompanied by modern wooden kitchen accents. Sleek hardwood floors in the common areas and bedrooms contrast with the traditional Spanish floor tiles in the bathrooms.

At each end of the apartment, the units feature large windows that let in plenty of natural light. The light travels to the central common area via sliding translucent panels in each bedroom, uniting each section of the apartment.

More from the architects

“Salva46 is our investigation into flexible co-existence. Exploring the nomadic lifestyle of the 21st century. Where movement and fluidity contrast with privacy and stability. An experiment in shared micro living – two equally balanced spaces pivoted by a central communal area. A play of opposites in a world of conformists. Ecology, restoration and up-cycling are all central to the theme, with the recovery and replacement of the original hydraulic mosaic tiles. The kitchen, which had a past life near Sitges, was adapted and re-used, complementing the rich patchwork of mosaic carpet and hydraulic perimeters.”

“The clean modern lines of industrial parquet contrasts with the cracks and crevasses of the 19^th century exposed brickwork. Frozen in time by a white oxidation, with the up-lit luminosity highlighting the buildings imperfections.  Relaxed furniture pieces complete the experiment, combining a balance of woods, stone & metal structural elements. No one will say we didn’t enjoy the journey… we hope the tenants do too!”

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A tiny apartment in Nishitokyo-shi, Tokyo was in serious need of a makeover. Its 50 square meter (164 square feet) area was filled with plenty of sunshine, but the flow of the home seemed wrong: a bedroom on one end, kitchen/dining room in the middle, and Japanese room at the other end.

Architectural design firm Camp Design, Inc. rearranged the Wing Wall House’s functions and added a series of wood partitions to create a series of segments and mini-rooms. It is truly amazing how a simple reprogramming of an existing space can transform the entire look and feel of the home, making it feel much larger than it is.

The flow of the apartment was made more intuitive and natural: bedroom at one end; kitchen, bathroom, and small study area in the middle; and living/dining area at the other end. (Above: the old floor plan on top and the new floor plan under it.)

The wooden partitions create visual separations of space without crowding the apartment or making the already-tiny space seem smaller. Natural light from large windows and a large sliding glass balcony door fill the home with sunshine and a perceived sense of space.

Wooden shelving units blend in with the added wooden partitions to create a small storage space in the kitchen area. A study nook sits to one side of the balcony while a doma, a traditional Japanese raised area, occupies the other side.

“The multilayer one room by a wing wall –  This is a renovation project of one room of an apartment for a young couple. This room is a long and slender plan of about 50㎡, and view and sunny are very good. I considered adopting fully the environment which surrounds this room. Moreover, even a shelf and furniture were wanted to build a client by themselves after completion. Since we did not become chaos even if a thing and our furniture increase, we thought that we would set up order with a wing wall.”

“And also a wing wall make a hiding place, articulating space gently. This long and slender one room becomes the multilayer space besides more various domains overlap. We thought that it would reconstruct to the living environment which included the context and the life style only by changing into a wing wall the wall which had divided the room.”

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This quirky design fits a surprising number of levels and hidden compartments into an ultra-small space, creating a system of storage and sleeping areas that help offset the necessary additions to support each floor. It’s an office turned apartment, making the most of the square footage with smart space-saving solutions.

Beriot Bernardini Arquitectos (images by Yen Chen) made the main floor a large open living room with a smaller kitchen counter area tucked toward the door and the bathroom behind it. White, white and more white keep the visual palette simple, open and bright.

Above, a lofted sleeping area is not tall enough to stand in but suitable for sitting or sleeping, taking advantage of the not-quite-double-height space.

In between, an interstitial area provides closet and other storage space with standing room only – but nothing else is really needed there so it all seems to work. The total result is a nice variety of spatial experiences, making one feel less stuck in the necessarily-low square footage provided.

More from the architects

“The basic aim of the project was to provide, despite the small surface available, all the necessary elements for a comfortable everyday use, avoiding shared-use solutions such as convertible bed-sofas, usual in these projects but fastidious due to their necessary daily transformation.”

“The solution takes advantage of the generous (3,5m) ceiling height available, insufficient however for standard mezzanines, through a system of split levels, each offering 2m or 1,5m according to the needs. Thus, bathroom, kitchen corner and access, 2m high, free over them a sleeping space of 1,5m; beside it, a 2m-high dressing space stands above a storage space including a sliding cupboard.”

“The project adds an extra 8.5sq-m which, although only 1.5m in height, allow for an apartment that, although only 28sq-m, boasts a generous living-room, bathroom, kitchen, independent sleeping area with dressing space, and plenty of storage space.”

The post Full of Surprises: 300-Square-Foot Office Turned Apartment first appeared on Dornob.