The process of designing for a small space is quite often a personal one -- knowing your habits, needs and wants intimately and having one's space reflect that, paring things down to retain the pure essence of what's needed to create a home.
Based out of Melbourne, Australia, architect Jack Chen of Tsai Design redesigned his 35-square-metre (376-square-foot) one bedroom apartment residence, to create a finely tuned scheme that adds in much more functionality and extras than previously existed in the flat's original state -- adding a kitchen, lots of delicious pieces of transformer furniture, an interior greenspace and a place to work, eat and lounge around. You can see the new layout in this interview and tour via Never Too Small:
© Tess Kelly Photography
© Tess Kelly Photography
As Chen explains:
The design is in support of the tiny house movement. The design questions the notion of living in excess; in the number of belongings, as well as the size of living areas. [This was a] tiny one-bedroom apartment without a working kitchen. The challenge is to refurbish the unit with clever interventions to create a generous living condition. With the incorporation of flexible, spaces of different functions can overlap one another or temporarily hide away altogether. Flexible furniture, a disappearing kitchen, mirror illusions and a lot of natural light are the key ideas proposed.
© Tess Kelly Photography