Making a Home in a Tiny Apartment
You want to live in the city, but you can't afford to pay those prices. What do you do? Some city dwellers have chosen to embrace small space and use it as a canvas for their creativity. With clever design, their tiny homes seem so much bigger.
Here is a collection of videos that showcase micro urban apartments and their inspired inhabitants. Much thanks goes to Kirsten Dirksen for her exceptional work on many of these videos.
The apartment window photo by Vincent Dejardin is used under a Creative Commons license.
This Is the First Leaf Ever to Receive the Magna Cum Laude Award on Zujava
To quote Bill when he announced the award,
"Art Aspirations did an amazing job of finding the right content to feature on this leaf, which makes excellent use of the YouTube section. It's a great example of how curating other excellent content can in itself be a great resource and amazing leaf.
If you've ever complained that your home, apartment, condo, dorm, or bedroom wasn't big enough, this might just be the inspiration you need to live simpler, more efficiently, and creatively.
As our first ever Magna Cum Laude leaf, please give Art Aspirations a hearty congratulations!"
I love writing on Zujava and really appreciate this honor!
Barcelona Rooftop Apartment
Everything He Needs at His Fingertips
This video takes you up 100 stairs to what used to be a dreadful little space. As Christian's mother said, "What have you done?" But now, this 258 square foot (24 square metre) apartment is an impressive arrangement of carefully planned and crafted components that he built and installed to create the perfect nest ... in a remodeled pigeon coup!
Manhattan Studio with Guest Room
Elegant Architect-Designed Conversion
Eric bought the biggest space he could afford. In Manhattan, that was 250 square feet (41 square metres). With the help of architectural firm, Normal Projects, this space was remodelled to become an elegant, efficient multi-functional set of rooms by clever use of cabinets and panels. And it has a serious cook's kitchen! In this video, as well as meeting Eric, you hear the thought processes of the architect.
Hong Kong Domestic Transformer
Sliding Panels and Walls Recreate Rooms
In his 344 square foot (31 metre) Hong Kong apartment, Gary Chang used his skill as an architect to make an warm and friendly home by the use of sliding walls that hide components - the bed, the soaker bath, the kitchen, the living room, the library and the screening room. Most people walk through a doorway to get to a different room. Gary stays in the same room and moves the walls. As they shift, the space becomes something different. When he's finished with that room, he transforms the space into yet another room. You have to see this to get the full impact of what he's done.
A Place for Everything in New York
Live in Manhattan, Walk to Central Park
Felice is a professional organizer who took on the challenge of a 90 square foot (8 square metre) microstudio with a sleeping loft. She is a writer and artist who works from her home, and was willing to make the space sacrifice in order to live in the Manhattan Upper West Side, a block from Central Park. Location, location, location! She adapted the space to suit her needs, and now enjoys life in her simple, cozy home.
San Francisco SmartSpace Studio 1.0
Even the Professionals Don't Get Everything Right the First Time
SmartSpaces are the brain child of housing developer Patrick Kennedy. To test out his design ideas, he constructed a 160 square foot (14 square metre) prototype apartment. It features built-in, convertible furniture and careful attention to the details that reflect a real person's use of space. With good humor, Patrick points out that the design doesn't get everything right, and there will be some revisions before his SmartSpace goes out into the real world.
Have you ever lived in a really tiny apartment?
Furniture that Transforms
Multiple Use of Space Expands It
This Italian-designed, carefully engineered furniture is truly amazing. You have to see it to believe how great it is - space transformation at its most excellent.
Making the Most of Small Space
Get Inspirations from These Books at Amazon
More Small Space Inspiration
If you enjoyed these creative solutions to small living spaces, you can go on more virtual tiny tours by visiting my leaf about the Tiny House Movement:
Small rooms and dwellings set the mind
on the right path, large ones cause it
to go astray. - Leonardo da Vinci
