Tag Archives: tiny living

This modular shelf unit inspired by the architecture of Bangkok’s storefronts features scissor gates and accordion doors for prime storage!

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Tenement H is a modular cubby storage system inspired by the multifaceted facades of Bangkok shophouses, Tenement H features customizable barriers that range from scissor gates to accordion doors, shutters, and railings.

Tiny living is no easy feat for city dwellers. A lot of planning and organization goes into ensuring that you’re making the most out of the small space in your studio apartment. Many look to modular organizers to bring just the right amount of customization and storage capacity to their small city spaces. San Design, a design group based in Bangkok, created Tenement H, a modular organizer inspired by Thailand’s architecture, for 2021’s Bangkok Design Week’s Design Plant Exhibition.

Tenement H is a modular cubby storage system that reflects the exhibition’s ‘domestic’ theme. Inspired by the multifaceted facades of Bangkok shophouses, Tenement H features customizable barriers that range from scissor gates to accordion doors, shutters, and railings. Constructed from aluminum, Tenement H is modular and versatile by design, allowing access to the storage units from all sides and multifunctional as a semi-partition for your room as well. Coated in glossy optic white, scarlet red, and light blue, the modules of Tenement H mimic the color scheme of Bangkok’s city storefronts. Each unit can be configured according to what your space allows–for smaller spaces, Tenement H can be built up vertically while larger spaces would allow for a wider base.

Small city spaces require lots of primary planning and organization. As life goes on, our living spaces clutter with all of the things we pick up day-to-day. Modular organizers make for ideal vertical storage systems that take up a small amount of space while decluttering the rest of the room. Tenement H is a multifunctional storage unit that implements aspects of and reflects Bangkok’s cityscape in an ode to small city living.

Designer: San Design

Tenement H is built on an easy stacking system that allows for endless configurations and storage. 

Tenement H’s color scheme reflects the vibrancy of Bangkok’s storefronts and city centers. 

Each module comes with a different closing mechanism, ranging from scissor gates to accordion doors and shutters.

Scissor gates are a familiar sight for most storefronts and have a secure feel that makes storing items feel more secure.

This transforming robotic furniture going from bed to home office desk is the 2021 investment we need!

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This past year has seen some pretty innovative work from home office solutions. Space-saving answers to tight office corners like desk setups that double as workout stations and retractable office cubicles that lean on a modular design to keep your living spaces decluttered only just scrape the surface of what we’ve seen thus far. Sustainable furniture design studio Ori adds a WFH apparatus called the Cloud Bed to the mix, merging an office and desk setup with a cantilevered lofted bed that descends to the floor to really hone in the mutability of working from home.

In its initial form, the Cloud Bed features a working desk and table beneath a lofted bed. Built for hospitality interiors and personal spaces, this space-saving work from home solution was designed to cover a small footprint inside the home. UL certified to ensure the bed remains lofted and close to the ceiling during working hours, the desk area folds into itself, merging with the floor as the bed descends from its raised position. While it might be tempting to hop up to the top of the bunk bed and sleep from such a high height, the Cloud Bed, Table Edition comes equipped with an internal mechanism that lowers the bed to the floor once the workday is done. With the push of a button, the mattress and wooden bed frame lower down from its elevated post in time with the desk folding inwards toward the floor. Requiring a minimum ceiling height of eight feet, six inches, the Ori Cloud Bed was designed to be integrated into smaller living spaces to make the most out of the space we have for working from home.

No one likes working in the same room we sleep in, let alone eat in. Without losing any living space, the Cloud Bed can come in either Queen or King sizes with a built-in table that sits up to five people. The Cloud Bed, Table Edition also comes outfitted with storage space, three outlets, voice and phone controls, as well as dimmable LED lights.

Designer: Ori

Presenting as an office desk for the home, Ori’s Cloud Bed doubles as a WFH solution and cantilevered bed.

Once the bed is lowered down, no trace of the office desk can be found.

Raised above the desk, the lofted bed requires a minimum height of 8’6″.

Designed as a hospitality and space-saving solution, the Ori Cloud Bed can fit into hotels as well as office spaces.

The Ori Cloud Bed appears as a contemporary, Scandinavian-inspired bed frame when lowered down.

When the Cloud Bed is raised to its top height, the integrated desk can sit up to five people.

Integrated motors and internal monitor systems ensure the steady descent and ascent of the Cloud Bed.

This tiny home panelled in corrugated steel was built in ode to Tokyo’s ever-changing cityscape!

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Tokyo is a city known for mixing the old with the new– architectural relics still stand planted where they’ve been since they were built centuries ago, while ultramodern skyscrapers and towers bloom between temples and the cracks of ancient pavement. Tokyo is as resilient and ever-changing as ever a city can be. An ode to Tokyo’s multifarious and evolving landscape, Unemori Architects constructed House Tokyo, a 50m2 tiny home stationed in a narrow alleyway.

The house was built with an aboveground main floor and lower basement stationed one meter beneath the ground. The home’s simple floor plan keeps the bedroom and bathroom areas in the semi-basement, while the main floor opens up to the dining room and living areas, implementing high ceilings due to the extra headroom granted by embedding the basement beneath ground level. With such a large internal volume, the tiny home located in Tokyo’s side alleyways packs high ceilings that span from 1.9 meters to 4.7 meters in height.

Punctuating the uneven cubic roof levels are large windows that work to augment the home’s overall living space, providing views of both the open sky as well as the bustling city streets. Constructed from wood, House Tokyo features corrugated steel paneling on its exterior that gives the home a distinguishable industrial look. Inside, sunlight pours into the home through its many windows and brightens up House Tokyo’s interior walls made up of different finishes and coats.

Home to a couple of 40-year-old city workers, House Tokyo was built as a temporary abode to accommodate the pair before they return to the countryside where they will rejoin their parents in rural living. In Tokyo, the couple enjoys their city lifestyle, frequenting the public bathhouse and restaurants often. To grant access to Tokyo’s most urban wonders, Unemori Architects constructed House Tokyo to be both open and compact, designing the house for the couple to take full advantage of the city life before returning to the countryside.

Designer: UNEMORI Architects

Wrapped in corrugated steel panels, House Tokyo exhibits a distinguishable industrial look.

Inside, sunlight bounces off natural wood accents and off-white plastered walls.

Large windows and warm tiled floors complement the sophisticated minimal interior design.

The main floor above House Tokyo’s semi-basement keeps the home’s dining and cooking areas.

Multileveled roofs grant access to different terraces throughout the home that grants access to skylights and city views.

Downstairs in the semi-basement, the home’s residents can find the bathroom and laundry facilities.

Positioned right outside the basement’s bathroom and laundry facilities, the couple can find their main bedroom.

This prefabricated tiny home is shaped like a geometric igloo for a sustainable off-grid living!

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One look at the rugged terrain of the Faroe Islands and you’re instantly transported to the latest fantasy television show where moss coats the roofs of handbuilt cottages and clicking hooves replace the sound of car engines. Danish engineer, Ole Vanggaard and Faroese architect, Kári Thomsen worked together to build their own cluster of prefabricated cottages in Kvivik, a hamlet cozied up in the hills of the Faroese landscape.

Named the Kvivik Igloo, the tiny, prefabricated houses perch the hilltops of Kvivik, overlooking the bay and surrounding mountains. Designed to look like tiny hobbit cottages, each Kvivik Igloo is built with a hexagonal frame and design elements meant to echo the past. Lined with asphalt panels, the Kvivik Igloos can sprout grass and greenery from their roofs and sides to really transport residents into their favorite hobbit fairytale. The igloo’s living roof not only adds to its charm but also to the tiny home’s sustainability factor, creating a heightened nesting place for birds and woodland creatures alike. Underlining their sustainability efforts, the builders use passive house construction practices and natural materials to build the Kvivik Igloos, including wood, glass, aluminum, and rubber. Chimneys also punctuate the top of each igloo’s roof, suggestive of a wood stove or fireplace. Steel framed windows form grids on the exterior of Kvivik Igloos, sweeping the entire span of some facades and merging the brisk outdoors with the cottages’ cozy insides.

Known for their strength and staying power, igloos have operated as a form of dome sheltering during winter months for many Inuit and Eskimo people for as long as they’ve existed. The angled structure of the Kvivik Igloo makes it so that the interior walls, floor, and ceiling converge, producing inclined skylights and a tall interior height. The cloudy white sunlight in Kvivik filters through the igloo’s handmade glass windows and skylights and gives the interior an antique air.

Designers: Ole Vanggaard and Kári Thomsen

Located in the Faroe Islands, Kvivik Igloos are built with hexagonal frames and plywood exterior panels.

The angled windows of Kvivik Igloos produce inclined skylights and allow sunlight to filter through the handmade glass surface.

A concrete foundation provides a sturdy base for the Kvivik Igloo to rest atop.

Colorful steel frames border the windows and give Kvivik Igloos a whimsical air.

All windows, doors, and window frames are handmade offsite and measure to fit the igloo’s preferred size.

A grass roof coats the tops of Kvivik Igloos, echoing the builders’ commitment to sustainability and nature.

This sustainable tiny home creates one modern multifunctional living space to reduce its carbon footprint and cost!

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Nowadays, most of us are thinking tiny, especially when it comes to living spaces. Tiny homes and prefabricated cabins have spread across the globe like wildfire and for good reason. Many of us are still eager to travel and can do that with a tiny home hitched to the back of a truck, then some of us prefer tiny homes for their cost-effectiveness, and the rest of us hope to reduce our personal carbon footprints by taking up less space. Johannesburg-based architect Clara da Cruz Almeida designed her prefabricated tiny home, Pod-Idladla with the idea of creating a tiny living space for young graduates without the means for a downpayment.

Before the manufacturing process, Pod-Idladla was conceived by Clara for young professionals to have a sustainable, affordable, and multifunctional living space. Inside, the living areas form one fluid space, rather than individual rooms. Walking through the unit’s front door, vertical storage solutions line the unit’s veneered walls and universal brackets allow the plywood storage bins to be moved around the pod. Even the pieces of furniture, from the kitchen table to the living room sofa, have dual purposes to optimize the unit’s space allowing residents to customize the space however they like. To merge practicality with convenience, the shower is even located in the passageway, which is outfitted with duck boarding, or slatted wooden flooring to keep the timber from getting wet.

Speaking on the unit’s multifunctionality, Clara says her tiny home contains, “spaces, not rooms. You could use the task room to store clothes or to keep your sports equipment. You could have an upstairs study if you don’t want to sleep on the mezzanine.”

Coming up with Pod-Idladla, Clara created a prefabricated modular home that could either stand by itself or attach to additional modules. Measuring a mere seventeen square meters, Pod-Idladla was built to fit into most backyards or small outdoor areas. The frame of Pod-Idladla takes the shape of an upright trapezoid to easily cozy up against any wall or attach to additional units. Each tiny home is built from standard drywall materials, including steel, aluminum, and wood. Outside, the home is clad in timber that can last up to 100 years with the proper care and maintenance. To save on transportation costs, the prefabricated components of Pod-Idladla are constructed in a Johannesburg-based factory and assembled on site.

Designers: POD-iDLADLA

Inside, the unit feels more like one multifunctional space, containing the functionality of the kitchen just below the mezzanine bedroom.

Small enough to fit into most backyards, POD-iDLADLA measures 20.52 square meters including the outdoor deck.

A ladder brings residents from the ground level to the mezzanine that can keep the bed or be morphed into an upstairs office.

The kitchen and dining area merge into one with the help of multifunctional furniture, like the expandable kitchen table.

Vertical storage solutions punctuate the unit’s veneered walls throughout.

Plywood boxes make up the unit’s storage spaces and can be moved throughout the unit.

Clara chose Dokter and Misses to design the interior for their industrial, yet quirky design schemes.

Even the unit’s light fixtures can be moved from their sockets and placed elsewhere in the home.

This multifunctional side table transforms into a chair and make the most of tiny living!

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Living in tight city corners is a finicky job– you have to make the most of your space, no matter how small. Studio apartments and tiny living spaces can make it feel difficult to have control over the space because delineating different rooms without overcrowding the place can feel impossible. In designing a chair specifically built for small living spaces in the city, NG Architects created Spring, a multifunctional table that blooms into a chair with a backrest at the push of a button.

Spring comprises a cylindrical shape that increases or decreases in height according to its desired function. At its lowest height of 500mm, Spring serves as a simple side table with a natural wood top. Then, by simply pressing the table down, Spring’s built-in compression springs are activated and morph the side table into a chair with a backrest. By following the same pushing tactic, the Spring chair can reach its maximum height of 900mm, transforming into a table that can work as a centerpiece for a small studio space. While the main building material used to construct Spring is oak wood, the furniture’s compression springs are made from aluminum, while natural and white paint colors coat the sides and top of Spring.

Named after the Spring season, the chair’s transformation is reminiscent of a flower blooming. The clever use of built-in compression springs gives double credence to the chair’s name and provides the chair with multifunctionality without having to take up more space. Designed specifically for tiny living spaces, Spring uses modern building practices and classic design principles to create simple, yet multifunctional pieces of furniture that open up to meet your space where it’s already at.

Designer: NG Architects

Inspired by a flower bud, NG Architects built Spring for practical purposes in small living spaces, creating more functionality while not overcrowding the space.

Five aluminum springs hold a clamp lever that morphs Spring into its different forms when activated.