To create a smarter space, Kennedy constructed a 160-square-foot test home (the smallest legal-sized apartment for California) inside a Berkeley wherehouse. SmartSpace 1.0 is filled with innovations like the SmartBench, an adjustable banquette that converts from a dining table to a guest bed. — youtube.com
8 Comments
As a human I hate being in too small of a space, this size may be great for japan but here in California there is plenty of space and I feel that people should never be forced to pack in like sardines!
48.5 sq meters is not really that small a space. Bachelor apartments in Cape Town normally start at around 45 sq m. Now that is your average-to-high income apartments.
Architect Jo Noero once made a diagram to illustrate the area difference between American and South-African low-income housing. The South African low-income housing, being pushed out by the government, is roughly the size of an American one's garage.
And @Jennifer, unfortunately nobody has the luxury of space in any metropolitan area. We face a future where we HAVE to drastically increase the amount of people per sq meter to accommodate population growth.
I was wondering how much 160 sq foot is in sq meters cause in the video it looks much smaller than my 34.15 sq meter apartment. According to Google 160 (square feet) = 14.8644864 square meters.
So I think it is quite small. I am still studying and I think the only time you would live in a small apartment is during while you are studying cause you spend most of your time in the library, studio, campus or the simple outside.
My husband, son and I lived in an apartment in Venice, italy for 10 days that was about 160sf. It was tight, but we were living out in the city, not in the apartment. We went there to cook meals and decompress, and sleep, then went right back out into the real life of the city.
This would be harder long term, and especially with children, but it's absolutely doable if one is in the right environment.
Interesting idea, I could see it becoming a template for dormitories or boutique hotels. However as a Californian, one major concern: although it's not against code, common sense is that if you are intending the banquette to be used as a built-in guest bed, it should not be directly under a window. In the event of even a 'minor' quake, the window would shatter, and whomever is the unlucky guest would be showered with glass.
WebRepIt reminds me more of a student residence with a kitchen and bathroom suite included rather than down the hall. I think Donna touches on a very important point on how we dwell in spaces in North America vs other countries in the world. The notion of "living out in the city, not in the apartment" is quite foreign to many North Americans. In Canada, this is quite evident as many downtowns and centres shut down at 6PM and everyone is expected to go home and stay there; except for the few concerts, hockey games, dinners.
My wife and I lived in Taiwan for 4 years. Our apartment was generous in size but small none-the-less compared to Canada. We, as Donna has, lived in the city. It was cheaper to eat out of the house and more practical. All residential washrooms in Asia were like this: one big room. Sure you had to squeegee but no one cared because you never wore socks in 32 degree weather for 90% of the year.
I'm always glad to see a small apartment promoted, but I have to laugh when a developer takes you around a space he's had somebody mock up. Of course he's hamming it up for the camera, but basically all the little conflicts he points out would have been avoided by hiring an architect with decent urban residential experience. Or just *doing the drawings*. The development world seems to be full of people who don't trust drawings, or architects, which is too bad because sometimes we're useful.
That said, a physical mock-up is a great thing, but the design seems a little slapdash. If you spent $200K on the mock-up, spend $20K on a good architect and you could come up with something better by beginning your process on paper.
Finally, presumably there was actually an architect behind some aspect of this. It would have been nice of the developer to mention him or her at some point in this ten-minute video.
I think it is wonderful that smaller spaces are being promoted and getting 'press'. Definitely (agreeing with George) most architects would have done a much better job on the design of the unit, but I still think there are many valuable points here.
Keep in mind that not only it would be more affordable to buy, but also te heat / cool, clean, maintain, etc.
This unit may be a bit of an extreme case, but the thought behind it can apply to many other not-so-tiny apartments.
I also appreciate how the developer is being honest about his mistakes and learnings and not trying to hide them (which he could have easily done...)
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