Poland

July 15, 2015July 15, 2015

Tiny Flat Celebrates Less

Magical things can happen when people see small as a choice rather than an unfortunate situation. The latter person will be unlikely commit to her life. Her home, stuff and attitude will reflect a resentment that she can’t afford a bigger place. But one who chooses ‘less’ will commit. She will make things work to their utmost extent. She will use her limited resources as a crowbar for opening creative potential. I can say with some confidence that Polish designer Szymon Hanczar is someone who chooses small. His 140 sq ft flat is a celebration to commiting to living small and light.

There’s not much to be said of the apartment that can’t be seen in the photos. There’s one closet that could fit a very pared down wardrobe and, amazingly, a tiny washing machine to clean that wardrobe. There’s a super tiny kitchen that looks useable, though not necessarily ideal for preparing large dinner parties. There’s a white tiled “wet” bathroom that is next to the kitchen. And there’s a sleeping loft.

So far as I can tell, almost all the furniture was purchased at IKEA. The chair is the TERJE. That’s a MALM dresser. I suspect the innards of the cabinets are from the PAX system. Not sure if the table is IKEA. This is cool in my opinion. It shows that you can make a beautiful, livable space with limited funds and very limited space.

Via Design Milk

Photo credit: Jędrzej Stelmaszek / grappastudio.pl

January 22, 2014January 23, 2014

Function and Form Sharing 237 Sq Ft

Often, the biggest limitation in designing small spaces is not lack of floor space, but lack of money. Let’s face it, people with budgets for fancy architects, designs and materials typically live in big spaces. It’s not that small spaces can’t look and perform great. It’s that their less well-heeled dwellers might not be able to give the financial resources that produce functionally and aesthetically remarkable homes. Given this situation, we are always heartened to see small spaces that employ the rigor of design that’s normally limited to big, fancy homes. This 237 sq ft Warsaw flat by Utopia Studio is a perfect example of such a space.

The tiny apartment, from what we can deduce, is shared by a mother, child and their dog. It features a large loft bed with tons of storage underneath. The stairs to the bed house individual drawers. The tiny kitchen has a fold down cutting board that conceals a sink and cooktop. The cozy and sparse living room is adorned with a small sofa and a table that goes from coffee to dining heights. There is wonderful sense of proportion and usability. It does not feel like a showroom apartment.

Beyond the overall intelligence of its execution, this apartment is interesting because its floorplan is so basic. The space is an unremarkable box with one bank of windows. Notably, the ceilings, while perhaps higher than normal, are not unusually high (something other innovative tiny spaces have exploited). In other words, these design ideas could be translated to a multitude of different spaces.

With much of the interior made of plywood and even chipboard, we imagine it was constructed on a reasonable budget. But its clean design and smart layout demonstrate that small spaces can be as elegant and functional as you want them to be.

Via Living in a Shoebox

March 5, 2013April 24, 2015

Stick Your Kid in a Cubby Hole

We’ve seen the work of Jakub Szczesny before, with Europe’s narrowest house. A couple years ago, the Polish architect designed the Tamka Apartment (aka Lucien’s Embassy), a 21.5 sq m (231 sq ft) Warsaw pied-a-terre. The man who commissioned the project was a divorced man looking for a weekend retreat where he can hang out with his son (named Lucien, we presume).

The apartment has a lot of great features, in particular, the kitchenette/table/room-divider unit and the bed cubby which has access to the bathroom. We also like that the apartment features a washing machine/dryer unit; although not a necessity, they’re pretty handy.

Though the apartment is for occasional use, we could see a single person, or perhaps even a couple, living there comfortably. We might do something about the Barney-the-Dinosaur paint-scheme though….

Pictures by Radek Wojnarvia for Design Boom

October 25, 2012

Europe’s Narrowest House Saves Space, Fights Obesity

Many tiny houses we look at on this site show uncommon ingenuity and creative use of space. Others, like this house for Israeli author Etgar Keret, err on the side of ridiculous. At 5′ at its widest point and 3′ at its narrowest, it is thought to be the narrowest house in Poland and perhaps all of Europe.

To be fair, the home’s design was not purely driven by livability. Keret built the Warsaw home at the site of a former Jewish ghetto as a memorial to his parent’s family died in the Holocaust.

Keret says that he plans to live in it when he’s in Poland however, and the space is fully functioning, with a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.

lucky-drop — image credit: Yasuhiro Yamashita

The home’s sun-drenched interior reminds us of the Kyosho Jutaku homes like the one above, which use optical illusions to create space. Its ridiculously narrow dimensions remind us of NYC’s Spite House.

What are your thoughts on this house? Interesting architectural exercise? Practical living space?