Small Living

Though a large imposing house may draw admiring glances, it’s also generally expensive, and a waste of resources for a smaller family. Los Angeles-based Big & Small House by Anonymous Architects bucks the trend of sizable LA residences, and instead offers an example of small living at its most practical and appealing.  Read More

Located within Spoleto’s high security prison is an inmate carpentry workshop which produces furniture for other prisons throughout Italy. Artist collective Cibic Workshop joined forces with co-operative organization Comodo in order to task these talented carpenters with the creation of Freedom Room: a flexible and low-cost micro-living module concept that could be employed as a tiny dwelling, social housing solution, hostel, or perhaps even a more comfortable prison cell.  Read More

I don't know. You wait all year for a single-room house-shaped tube with wall-to-wall glass at each end to arrive, then two come along at once. First we had Bunkie, a sort of spare-room-in-your-yard with bunk beds craftily squirrelled away in the walls and roof. Now we have Bunkie's spiritual bigger brother, 2by4-architects' Summer House, with its unfolding, and even-more secretive walls.  Read More

You can erect a prefab shed in a remote field, but that doesn't make it a house. Mercifully, Nathan Buhler of BLDG Workshop and Evan Bare of 608 Design are more circumspect when it comes to their collaborative effort, the Bunkie. Talking to Gizmag, Buhler said that he thinks of the design more as a large product than as small-scale architecture. Effectively a spare room you can put in your yard, we think that's bordering on understatement.  Read More

Designed by architecture and design practice Nilsson Pflugfelder, Verbandkammer is conceived as an all-in-one living and working space aimed at visual artists, cramming an impressive number of building functions through its 40 modules, including work desks, meeting areas, archive shelving and sleeping quarters, into a compact, efficient (if perhaps a little cramped) space. And, as you'd probably expect these days, the 40 modules can be rearranged so that the Verbandkammer can be reconfigured at will.  Read More

Czech architect Marek Štěpán and his studio Atelier Štěpán has come up with a stylish take on the prefabricated home designed for affordable off-grid living. Though compact, the "Freedomky" nevertheless comes complete with laundry and cooking facilities as well as security and heating systems.  Read More

Fighting coastal erosion is a little like fighting aging. One can can make endless expensive artificial enhancements, but one day those enhancements will fail, and when they do, things will get ugly. In the case of erosion, for many that can only mean packing up and heading off for pastures new (or at least inland), for the owners of the Hut on Sleds, it's as simple as remembering where you parked your tractor. The Hut on Sleds, you see, is designed to be moved in the more literal sense.  Read More

Architectural studio Horden Cherry Lee has installed its sixteenth Micro-Compact Home overlooking Lake Maggiore in Switzerland. The micro-dwelling was flown in by helicopter last month to accommodate the owner’s last minute visiting guests and was fully installed in just over 4 minutes.  Read More

Here's a novel take on the home residence: a block of eight apartments in Japan designed exclusively for the motorcyclist.  Read More