Small is beautiful
When it comes to homes, it is often assumed that bigger is better. Big provides space for a property’s occupants and opportunities galore for its architect to be bolder, brasher, more expansive. But, as these remarkable structures prove, that is not always the case. In fact, as the world becomes busier and space more and more of a luxury, the designers of these stunning, groundbreaking homes have found novel ways to transform something compact into something truly dazzling.
Ingenious, innovative and often brilliantly beautiful, these houses are object lessons in making the most of what you have, however little it may be. They combine state-of-the-art technologies and plenty of imagination to create a whole new world of spacesaving architecture.
Small Architecture Now! by Philip Jodidio (TASCHEN, £34.99).
1. Beetle’s House by Terunobu Fujimori was part of the 1:1 – Architects Build Small Spaces exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Visitors reached this ‘floating’ teahouse – built using charred timber – via a ladder, to view the surrounding galleries 2. The Yingst Sauna, designed by David Salmela, offers peace and quiet in the woods of Traverse City, Michigan. It has a sod roof, which helps it to blend into the forest background
3. Suzuko Yamada’s Pillar House in Tokyo was inspired by old Japanese houses, which have a large pillar at their centre 4. The dome-like Fireplace For Children, designed by Haugen/Zohar Arkitekter, sits in a playground in Trondheim, Norway. It glows through the gaps in its oak form when a fire is lit inside 5. The Riverside House, in Tokyo, was designed by Kota Mizuishi and built on a tiny triangle of land – it functions as a family home
6. This Gulf Islands singleroom cabin in British Columbia, designed by Olson Kundig, may be tiny but it has enough room for a cosy wood burner and bed 7. Rintala Eggertsson Architects created the Ark Booktower, a bespoke timbre pavilion that was exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum
8. REX designed Madison Avenue (Doll)House, which was displayed in the window of Calvin Klein’s Madison Avenue shop in 2008-9 in order to show o the company’s products. The work was envisioned as a futuristic home that spoke to the needs of modern urban living 9. Intended as a place for local residents to regain their peace of mind after the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011, the Homefor- All, made of Japanese cedar, is the result of a close collaboration between architects Toyo Ito, Kumiko Inui, Sou Fujimoto, and Akihisa Hirata