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If you want a really roomy place, you can live in a 90-square foot apartment. But Luke Clark Tyler, an architect in Manhattan, figured that he could do just fine with a cozier place. His apartment, which includes furniture that he designed and built for it, is only 78 square feet in floor space. Tyler has a murphy bed, a couch, a microwave, a refrigerator, and a closet.
Did I mention that Tyler works from home? That tiny space is also his office. -via Doobybrain
An apartment in Rome that measures 55 square feet may be the smallest in the world. And it could be yours for about $68,000.
The flat consists of a ground floor bathroom with a shower, sink and lavatory and a ladder leading to a sleeping platform just big enough for a single bed. There is a single window, but to open it you have to climb over the bed.
Link via Althouse | Photo: CEN
Previously: The Smallest Apartment in New York City
Coldcast assembled pictures and information about twenty of the strangest apartment buildings around the world. These include the above “Cube Houses” of Rotterdam. Designed by Piet Blom and built in 1984, they use the space over a pedestrian walkway and are angled to create the impression of a forest:
The cubes are tilted and sit on hexagon-shaped pole structures. The cubes contain the living areas, which are split into three levels. The triangle-shaped lower level contains the living area. The windows on this level open onto the environment below due to the slope of the tilted cube. The middle level contains the sleeping area and a bathroom, while the top level, also in a triangular shape, is used as either an extra bedroom or a living space. The top level provides a great view since the apex of the room is a three sided pyramid with windows all around.
Link via Digg | Information about the Cubic Houses | Photo: Wayfaring.info
Zaarath and Christopher Prokop and their two cats live in the smallest apartment in New York City — just 175 square feet. For its size, it’s reasonably well-equipped with a shower, sink, toilet, refrigerator, and hotplate. In The New York Post, Angela Montefinise writes:
The couple wakes up every morning in their queen-size bed, which takes up one-third of the living space.
They then walk five feet toward the tiny kitchen, where they pull out their workout clothes, which are folded neatly in two cabinets above the sink. A third cabinet holds several containers of espresso for their only kitchen appliance, a cappuccino maker.
To keep the floor clean, the couple uses a Roomba. More pictures at the link.
Link via Jammie Wearing Fool | Photo: Angel Chevrbstt
Photo by Peter Korrak
For a hundred years or so, Vienna invested in coal/gas energy, but when the plant was decommissioned there were four large gasometers remaining. The imposing structures sat idly, appearing in the James Bond movie, The Living Daylights and hosting rave parties.
Rather than tear them down, architects designed them to be converted into apartment style housing. First, they gutted the structures.
Each gasometer was divided into several zones for living (apartments in the top), working (offices in the middle floors) and entertainment and shopping (shopping malls in the ground floors). The shopping mall levels in each gasometer are connected to the others by skybridges.
Additional features:
Over 70 restaurants/bars/cafes
A multiplex cinema with 12 screens
4200 person capacity events hall
Daycare center
The Vienna National Archive
11,000 square meters (118,403 sq ft) of office space
615 apartments
230-bed student dorm
Link with many cool photos.
Dutch architect Koen Olthuis responded to the rising sea level by designing a floating apartment building:
The Dutch are uniquely accustomed to dealing with fluctuating water levels; much of the Netherlands is below sea level, and vast swaths of land, known as polders, are continually pumped free of the accumulating rainwater that threatens nearby homes and buildings. The Citadel will simply rise and fall with the changing water levels, making it impervious to flooding, tides, and sea waters inching upward as a result of global warming.
Built atop a floating heavy concrete foundation, The Citadel will house 60 luxury apartments, a parking garage, a floating roadway, and boat docks. Each apartment will naturally have waterfront views via a garden terrace, and greenhouses will be interspersed throughout. But the greenest feature of the Citadel is its cooling system: submerged pipes will pump water throughout the structure to cool it, reducing its energy use by 25 percent compared to a conventional building.
