(Video link here.) In 2010, Graham Hill, the founder of treehugger.com, bought 420 square foot apartment in a tenement building in New York City’s Soho and, over two years, turned it into a showcase for tiny living.
Hill wanted a tiny space hat would expand to fulfill his wish list which included dinner parties for 12, accommodations for 2 overnight guests, a home office and a home theater with digital projector. He crowdsourced the design as a competition and received 300 entries from all over the world. Two Romanian architecture students won with their design “One Size Fits All”.
Hill’s LifeEdited apartment can be expanded to include the functionality of 1,100 square feet: walls, drawers and beds move and unfold to create 6 rooms: living room, dining room, office, guest office, master bedroom and guest bedroom, kitchen and the bathroom (which morphs into a phone booth or meditation room).
The video shows the transformation and is packed with interesting ideas. Many do involve expensive specially-designed mechanisms and furniture but provide food for thought. Sometimes it’s worth the expense on certain items to achieve functionality that will last for years. We also note that, like many modern apartment tours, the space does not show what it looks like when it’s REALLY being lived in. Still we like the philosphy behind it alot: That when you look closely at what you need, you can often do with less if you use things in a multitude of ways.
Here are some resources, including great low-maintenance Merino wool clothes:
- Transforming furniture- distributed in US by Resource Furniture; Queen bed (Swing) and bunk beds (Lollipop) manufactured by Clei
- Goliath table- Resource Furniture
- Stacking chairs by Voxia
- Induction cooktops by Fagor America
- Stacking kitchenwares by Joseph Joseph
- Merino wool clothes from Icebreaker
- Winter jacket by Nau
- Solar lighting by Voltaic Systems
- Recycled-content stone in bathroom from Consentino
Read the full-story here.
Related posts: 3 rules for editing your life
sneak peek: improvised life’s new space + our cool optical illusion design solution
‘tiny homes: simple shelter’
small space obsession: 182 sq ft apartment on 3 levels
small space wonder: 258 sq ft puzzle-box penthouse
Just wanted to let you know that I liked this post so much it inspired my own post about Sendak. I included a link back to your post. You can view my post here: http://rosemarywashington.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/remembering-maurice-sendak/.
Thanks so much for the gift of your blog.