More Small Space Portable Living: Little House on the Trailer

So it seems to me that there are more and more portable living options popping up these days. Last year I covered several portable dwellings. In January 2008 I covered the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. This year the Little House on the Trailer reminds me of the Tumbleweed.

The Little House on the Trailer is available in slightly more spacious versions up to 400 sq ft. Although essentially a mobile home, these structures are beautiful. With a much higher attention to detail than is normally found in traditional mobile homes, The Little House on the Trailer is more like high-end construction.

The owner of The Little House on the Trailer Company, Stephen Marshall, is able to achieve some very dramatic floor plans in these small packages. There are several versions available: offices, dwellings, and “art spaces” which are basically small studios.

The units come ready to be occupied — just hook up the plumbing and you’re in business. They are not inexpensive. The home pictured at the top retails for $65,000, but still a bargain considering the attention to detail.

Portable homes are a great way to add square footage to your existing home and an appealing mobile option for a starter home. Via apartment therapy.

Small Space Rehab: Philly Style

One of my favorite things about architecture these days is the abundance of creative rehabs that pop up in urban areas. I love the reuse of old structures. It’s a sort-of architectural recycling.

I stumbled on this great rehab of a garage in Philadelphia. Three master of architecture students from the University of Pennsylvania executed the rehab in lieu of more traditional internships.

The space is quite amazing with its striking Cor-Ten steel façade. There are many amenities packed in this old garage. Some of the highlights are bamboo floors, on-demand electric-heated water, exposed brick, and a 600 square foot green rooftop. The entire project is simply amazing.

You can see more pictures here at the flicker set. And if you have 400K you can buy it here!

Via 100khouse.

Small Space Prefab: Bungalow in a Box

We are big fans of prefab here at Small Space Living. And after having spent my first weekend of the summer at the cottage, I am thinking of get-a-ways.

Bungalow in a Box builds small ready to assemble Bungalow kits. While not exactly a entirely pre-built structure like many of the prefab projects we have covered, it has a lot of promise.

You assemble the Bungalow in a Box in place on your foundation in one or two days. Now I’m thinking that perhaps Norm Abram would be able to have one up by lunch, but it may take a lesser carpenter slightly longer. The kit does seem to be set up so anyone with moderate skill could build one.

Bungalow in a Box kits are the full finished exterior of the structure allowing you the ability to customize the interior. The kits are perfect for studios, backyard offices and weekend get-a-ways. The best part is the price tag — starting at $13,700 for the 12x16 foot model they should be accessible to most.

Small Space Pop Up Furniture: Sandy Lam’s Spaceless

Small Space living presents many challenges — not the least of which is, well, space. There just never seems to be enough. Even outdoors, my “back yard” is hardly the size of a small car.

Sandy Lam has developed some pretty intuitive solutions for increasing the useable space on balconies. Spaceslees is a system of furniture that pops up from the decking of outdoor balconies. It does not actually pop, you do need to lift it, but the pieces fold into the decking beneath their up-right position.

Currently, there are two pieces in the Spaceless collection — a table and a bench. The pieces fold flat when not in use allowing the space to be used for other purposes. When there is a need for additional furniture, you simply lift them out of their in-deck storage.

Small Space Prefab Italian Style: The Joshua Tree

The Italians have always been the cutting edge of design and architecture. So it stands to reason that their entries into the prefab market would be stylish and beautiful.

The Joshua Tree by Hanger Prefab Group definitely delivers a healthy dose of Italian Style. The Joshua Tree is a stunning steel panel covered prefab vacation home. The grey exterior is a stark contrast to the warm wood of the interior. The interior is constructed of pale wood reminiscent of a beach cottage.

The design is simple yet elegant and unique enough to set itself apart from other prefabs in its size category. Billed as a “mountain refuge” at the Milan Furniture Fair, the Joshua Tree would be a welcome addition to the prefab market stateside. The Joshua Tree is being marked by Holiday Homes Design.

I’m encouraged to see the international market producing spectacular prefabs. I will have more information on the Joshua Tree as soon as more English information becomes available. Via Dwell.

Small Space Accommodations: The Pod Hotel

Traveling can be expensive. Paying a premium for spacious hotel rooms never made much sense to me. Most of the time when I’ve traveled it was to see some location other than the inside of a hotel room.

The Pod Hotel is changing the way we think about hotels in America. The Pod Hotel has been quite successful in Europe and now it’s catching on in the US. The first American Pod Hotel is located in Manhattan. It is not uncommon for a average New York hotel room to top $300 a night. The Pod Hotel has rooms as low as $89 with average prices around $180.

What’s the big deal with The Pod? The big deal is well small. If you stay in The Pod Hotel you will be staying in a room that is significantly smaller than major hotel chain’s rooms. The rooms are small, clean and well appointed. There are iPod docks and flat screen televisions. The smallest and least expensive rooms have shared bathrooms.

If you are traveling to New York this summer, check it out. If The Pod Hotel continues to be successful, there may be one coming to a city near you very soon.

Small Space Living: 435-Square-Foot Apartment

Photo Credit Michael Weschler for The New York Time

A recent New York Times article “A Global Sweep On a Tiny Budget” by Elaine Louie showcases a fantastic Greenwich Village apartment.

The apartment, a 435 square foot studio, was transformed into a surprisingly spacious-feeling one-bedroom apartment. The project is an example of the remarkable possibilities in small space living. The entire remodel was accomplished with a $41,000 budget. Not inexpensive, but very reasonable for New York.

The apartment is able to achieve much in its relatively small space. The kitchen is open and nicely equipped. The living room appears more spacious than possible.

All in all it is another great example of living well in a smaller space.

Small Space Self-contained Kitchen

Italian kitchens have always been more sleek and stylish than their American counterparts. Many Italian kitchen components are more like furniture than our built in cabinets. It’s not unusual for Italian renters to take their kitchens with them when they move.

Dada, an Italian Kitchen manufacturer, produces the Tivali line by Dante Bonuccelli. It is a line of completely self-contained freestanding kitchens. The can be used as room dividers or backed against a wall. They are sleek modern kitchens, which can be concealed behind smooth sliding doors that fit neatly into pockets of the unit.

There are several variations of the design with color and equipment options. One even has illuminated glass shelves.

I’d love to be able to close some stylish sliding doors to conceal my current kitchen — then I’m not sure the dishes would ever get done.

Apartment Therapy Small Cool 2008

Way back in January I did a post on Apartment Therapy’s Small Cool 2007 contest. It is a marvelous event where owners and renters submit photos of their small apartments. There are prizes for the winners and tons of eye candy and free ideas for the rest of us.

The contest brings out the best of the beautiful small living spaces. Last year I spent untold hours scrolling through sideshows of some pretty incredible dwellings. The entire contest is just fabulous — there is no single place where you can see so many stunning small designs.

Well its that time again the 2008 contest is underway. This year the deadline for entry is April 14th. I am somewhat expecting that deadline to be extended, as there are not so many entries this year.

So far I love “Luca’s Surplus of Storage & Light”. It is truly a marvel of small space living. At just 400 square feet it certainly qualifies for small space, but the balance of light and perfect built-ins make it seem much larger. As amazing as it sounds, this tiny apartment has a walk-in-closet. I also love the built-in storage separating the living area from the bedroom. The wall of storage contains the apartments AV equipment, including a flat screen TV that can pivot to be viewed from either room.

I’m sure by the time Apartment stops accepting entries there will be some additional stunning spaces. I’ll keep you posted.

Holyoke Cabin: Update

Way back in January we had a post about Paul Stankey’s Holyoke Cabin. This amazing creation is a small cabin created joining two shipping containers. The resulting structure is striking.

Ready Made Magazine has a piece about the cabin in its March issue. There is not much new information about the project, but it got me thinking about it again.

I also found this photo set on Flicker with some new shots of the site and project.

And I know the rules “thou shall not covet thy neighbors cabin”, but Paul is not really my neighbor so I guess that makes it ok.

Small Space Cabin Architecture For The Masses

It’s nice to see relevant architecture available to the masses. Very often striking architecture comes at striking prices.

I have been watching the C3 Cabin for several years. Designed by Vandeventer + Carlander Architects, the C3 was originally designed as a weekend retreat for a couple in Washington State. In 2006 it won the AIA/Sunset Magazine Merit award. The plans were later made available at a cost of $2,000.

Making plans available for mass production is a significant step for an architectural firm. Selling plans for structures carries with it considerable liabilities and expense, which are passed along in the purchase price.

So why am I talking about a several year old design? For several reasons, not the least of which is a price drop of the plans to $850. This is a fantastic price for an award winning design.

The cabin is a perfect illustration of small space living with big style. The foot print of the cabin results in an interior square footage of 352 on the fist floor with an additional 128 in the loft. The interior is designed with the kitchen and bath on the first caped by the sleeping loft.

The design of the cottage encompassed three primary goals. First, to provide the space required for an extend stay cabin with a minimal footprint. Second, provide a quality of space and abundant natural light not typically found in a structure of this size. And third, the structure needed to allow for simplicity of construction and maintenance. The C3 hits a home run all three points.

The cabins exterior is constructed of low cost fiber cement and metal panels. These materials have a low initial cost and minimal long-term maintenance.

The cabin has that light airy look and feel of a well-designed space. The natural light and interior height trick one into believing the C3 is a far more spacious structure.

Stairs in Small Spaces

Stairs are hard. Not walking up or down them, but rather integrating them into a small floor plan. Our home has a unique set up with the stairs floating in the center of our home. There are no walls around the stairs on the first floor, which makes that level seem bigger than that of similar homes.

Floating or not, they very much limit the area around them. It is our intention to move the stairs back against the wall to open up more precious floor space. If it were one set of stairs it would be easy, but we also need the basement, second floor and attic. I suppose when the time is right we will consult an architect.

I do however find myself looking at the many available stair options on the internet. I am constantly looking for that perfect stair and how it could integrate into our home.

The picture at the top of the post is an industrial indoor or outdoor aluminum alternating-tread unit that I have been seeing everywhere. It is in projects in several books I own and I remember seeing it in no less than four magazine spreads lately. If I lived in an ultra slick bachelor pad, I’d consider slapping it on every floor. The wife would never go for it and I’m sure after one slip I’d hate it too.

I do come across cool stairs very often and here is a gallery of my favorites. Have a great stairs in your home? I’d love to see them — send it my way.

Home and Garden Show Disappointment

David L.Lawrence Convention Center

Yesterday I spent hours walking around the Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show. I need to ruefully report that this is your father’s home and garden show. I was over all unimpressed with the show.

Now I have to admit it was not all bad. If you were looking for standard off the shelf products, this was the place to be. Also, there were a wide assortment of windows, HVAC, and other general remodeling options. I was some how expecting to see a larger selection of green building and alternative energy options.

There were at least three solar energy contractors, none of which had anything you could not have seen ten years ago. Newer models perhaps, but newer ideas — there were none. I believe of all the HVAC people, there was only one showing geo-thermal options. And no, a diesel generator is not exactly my ideal of “off the grid”.

Many contractors had alternative green products. There were flooring contractors with low emission refinishing chemical options, companies with higher quality insulation and more energy-efficient glass, but most of these options seemed like an after thought.

I could go on and on, I just had a higher expectation of a home show in the year 2008. The show was at the David Lawrence L. Convention Center, which when it opened in 2003 was the largest green building in the world.

The day was not all bleak — there were some shining stars. I did manage to find a few favorites in the crowd.

Construction Junction
Construction Junction was there. If you remember I did a post on them in January. They are our local architectural salvage and recycled building material non-profit retailer. Construction Junction always has great finds; it’s not just for people who are remolding or building. There is furniture and always something for everyone. They had these great tables made from reused lumber with tops made of hinged shutters. They are a great idea for a hall table or small desk.

Caruso Cabinet Manufacturing INC
Kitchen and cabinet contractors were plentiful. Most were the cookie cutter, slap me in a suburban subdivision, kitchens. One manufacture stood out — Caruso Cabinet Manufacturing INC. They exhibited several stunning kitchens. One was a great small space design. They did have larger displays also, but I loved the little guy.

ASID showcase
I also enjoyed the ASID showcase. It was a collection of rooms designed inspired by famous Pittsburghers. Included in this exhibit was an Andy Warhol kitchen, a bathroom for David L. Lawrence, and a green room for Rachel Carson. It was some pretty nice stuff. There was a loft living room with balcony designed for David Conrad that uses a great old wood shop workbench as a wine table. Good example of reuse meets high design.

Small Space Tokyo Apartment

How small is your apartment? I’m going to guess that it is slightly larger than these 82 square foot units designed by architect Kumiko Inui.

In Tokyo the average apartment is 774 square feet. With land for new construction in very limited supply, many smaller lots that had previously been over looked are more frequently being utilized. This apartment complex is one such structure.

The building is a feat of architectural design. The apartments may be small, but floor to ceiling windows let in natural light and provide expansive views. I can’t imagine much furniture in these spaces. Truly an example of small space living, this is the smallest apartment building I have ever seen.

Check out a video of the space here. Via Dwell Daily.

Beautiful Security

So this is not exactly a post pertaining to enriching you life in a small space. It is about a truly unique architectural security screen surrounding a school near my home — Martin Luther King Accelerated Learning Academy.

Sure this school has a fancy name for a Pittsburgh Public School, but I always thought it was a kind of bland looking building. More than bland, it almost looked like a military bunker or something. The building is dull concrete grey and brown brick. I’m not sure exactly when it was built, but it has strange sloping walls leading up to a flat area around the entire perimeter of the school. The whole thing was really unappealing, plain and hard. Not at all welcoming. I guess I should say that skateboarders love it, but I don’t think the feeling was mutual for me.

This past year Renaissance 3 Architects along with Technique Architectural Products installed security screens. The screens that — get this — were intended to “provide an appearance this is adequate for the school’s environment and block non affiliates from entering the property during non school hours”. Translation: look pretty and get rid of skate punks.

So I have to admit that in the daylight hours the screens look like more grey. They are made of galvanized steel panels. The panels upon closer inspection are pretty pleasant looking with patterns and shooting stars. In the night though, they really shine. A strip of color-shifting LED’s illuminate each of the panels. The color patterns are constantly changing. Each whole screen is sequenced so the colors change and flow around the entire building.

On a night like tonight with snow in the air it’s beautiful. And I wanted to share it with all of you.

Matroshka: A Compact Living Concept

Matroshka is one of the most amazing small space living solutions I have seen. The concept originated as a project at Mid Sweden University. Four Industrial Design students were instructed to find a solution for people living in compact spaces. Matroshka was their solution.

The Matroshka is a raised workspace, a room within a room. The main volume of the system is a raised platform — a stage of sorts. The raised space is intended to be used is an office area.

In addition to the raised platform there, is a padded bench. The bench slides under the platform. This is the real beauty of thee system. The volume of the platform and the bench are used to nest an entire series of other furniture objects — there are two separate benches, a table and four stools. It is possible to accommodate up to twelve people with the pieces nested in Matroshka.

The pieces may also be arranged into a sleeping area including a full-sized bed. The number of possibilities with Matroshka seem almost limitless. This idea is sure to catch on — I hope these units are produced for sale soon. The Matroshka is one of the best small space living solutions I have seen so far.

Mold Forms: Found Object Decorating

I Live in Pittsburgh. Regardless of Its current accomplishments or future direction, Pittsburgh will always be know for its industrial past. Even now, there are signs of this past everywhere — giant machines stand as silent monuments to their proud history. Rows of smoke stacks remind new developments of their sooty past. Everywhere you look there are reminders — many of the buildings are gone, but we all recall what stood in the now open spaces.

At one time, the steel mills were everywhere here; then they were gone. As they folded, there was a wealth of buildings and objects abandoned. These forms are some such objects. At one time there were shops at every mill that produced these forms and prototypes. They were used to create the molds into which steel was pored.

These particular items have been stored in a friend’s house for years. Having been involved in the dismantling of steel mills, he had the forethought to keep some of these items — which at that filled dumpsters. They were so black with soot I could have never guessed the wood could still possess the warm glow that it now displays.

To clean them, I did very little to the pieces seen here — I washed them with Murphy’s Oil Soap and that’s it. They were placed in my mantel to be photographed, but I will find some more permanent home for them soon. It is amazing how closely the wood resembles the patina of the pine floors in my 1860’s row house.

I will keep one or two around on display to remind me of where I from. I am glad these objects survived. It would be a shame to not display such beautiful objects.

Small Space Folding Furniture

Folding furniture is not often pretty. It conjures up thoughts of grey metal, vinyl upholstery and pinched fingers.

Nils Frederking of Berlin is changing all of our past perceptions of folding furniture. His new pieces are both beautiful and durable. These pieces look like they could be used everyday. They are stylishly designed and fold for easy storage.

In small space living, dining is often a problem — this table could be easily stored away until needed. Having a dinner party? Not a problem, just pull the Klappstuhl F2 out of the closet and you have a dining table. Don’t need a full-sized table every day? Fold it up and put it away.

I’m not sure when these will be available for sale, but French furniture manufacturer Ligne Roset has them listed as key products for this years line-up.

Small Space Loft

The Interlocking Loft is great example of lofty living in a small space. The space for this loft is far from spacious, but Kyu Sung Woo Architects were able to pack in a lot of living while retaining an open airy feel.

The space has a waved ceiling that, at its low point, is 11 feet 10 inches and in the high points is 12 feet 3 inches. This space did not allow for two full height levels, so the architects incorporated three separate half-height levels into the design. Tucked into the highest points of the ceiling are to separate sleeping areas joined by a catwalk. The architects used the area under the upper areas for closets and spaces not requiring full height.

The space truly interlocks perfectly. In one of sleeping areas there is a raised sleeping platform; the underside of which creates more headroom in the kitchen area.

Small Space Living Library Stair

Photo Credits apartment therapy


If you have read our book page, you know we love books — in fact we have too many. The problem with storing books in a small space is, well, space. There is no easy solution — books just take up space.

Well Veronika and Sebastian, the owners of this London Apartment, have a very appealing solution. They had a staircase converted into a makeshift library. I have seen many architectural examples of shelves on stairs, stairs with built in drawers and other clever uses. I have never seen it taken quite to this extreme and none so perfect for small space living.

The resulting staircase structure is stunning. The stairs are steep, but if leading to a private room, a master bedroom in this case, then it’s more than expectable. I also like the way the staggered treads add visually to the piece. A great find via apartment therapy.