Living Small How can you make a small house, big?

revisiting our past

When trying to figure out how to get the most out of 1000 or 850 sq ft, it is helpful to look at the housing of our ancestors. Although society and building methods have changed dramatically since the single pen or shotgun houses were originally developed and used, by necessity their owners were masters at living in small spaces. In fact many of the housing concepts that we largely consider ‘modern’, such as multi-use spaces were integral to everything from the teepee to the dogtrot.

Considering the substantial burdens associated with building or adding onto a house before the 20th century, by examining the development of southern folk housing types we can gain a better understand-ing spatial and funcitonal necessities of housing. For example, an addition to a single pen or dogtrot house was not lightly considered. That addition could be a response to a need for storage, the moving-in of the extended family or the innate human desire to have at least some privacy.

We think that the way these houses developed over time provides a model for a needs based approach to designing for small living.

housing types shown:

single pen

saddlebag

central hall

dog trot

telescope

shotgun

camelback

Living Small How can you make a small house, big?

a needs-based approach to design

It is probably not helpful for the designers of the alley flat to mimic the development of the single pen house- designing a simple box that will added onto over the years as needs develop. However, it does provide a way of thinking about design in which need is the primary approach and organizing element. When a client prioritizes his or her needs and activities, this creates a framework for editing and organizing that is absolutely necessary for designing, and building a successful 1000 sq ft house. It is possible to create a 1000 sq ft house that feels like a 2000 sq ft house and has a soul, but not if every need or want or space is jammed into its nar-row confines.

why is a needs-based approach fabulous ?

it provides a method for organizing, programming and understanding the various spaces of a house

it helps the owner and the architect prioritize- en-abling critical decisions to be made regarding the size of spaces; activities that should or should not be designed for; where more valuable materials should be used for maximum effect

it helps ensure that the house has a soul, instead of being a jumble of crammed-in needs and rooms

it creates framework of living for the owner and the architect.

neighborhoodLiving Small How can you make a small house, big?

small, smaller and smallest

Fortunately or unfortunately, need and the design of the alley flat should be approached from three dif-ferent scales- the neighborhood, the house and the owner’s activities. Or Small, Smaller and Smallest.

Why should you consider the neighborhood in the design of the alley flat? Among other things, it is pos-sible to live big in a small space when sharing amongst neighbors occurs. This can mean that instead of each flat having a yard, a kitchen or laundry facilities, they might be shared amongst a number of flats or the entire alley. The culture of the alley and neighborhood are also important as it can help determine what sort of spaces or degree of privacy is needed.

three scales?

neighborhood

house

activity

living small small-smaller-smallest

Thesetwohistoricalprecedents,theSpanishCourtyardHouseandtheJapaneseTraditionalHouse,willserveasexampleoftimeprovenformstosuggestalternativemeansofhabitation,toprovideadaptablesolutionsforpassivecooling,andtopresentorganizationofahomethatcanconnectcommunitytohouseholdandthatcanmakemulti-familyhabitationpossibleincloseproximity.Theyaresignificantnotasrulestofollowdirectlybutasideastopursuecreatively.

Themodelsthemselvesaretoolargetoapplydirectlytoanalleyhousedesign.However,theyareriferegardingpotentialintheexecutionofsuchadesign-appropriatelyenergyefficienttoaffordablehousing-necessarilycriticalforlivingwithinasmallarea-andhumaneenoughinscaletodelightinbothcommunityandindividuality.�

green home

east austin

inspiration

“I would rather solve the small house problem than build any-thing else i can think of . . . but where is a better small house to come from while Government housing itself is only perpetuat-ing the old stupidities? I do not believe it will come from current education, from big business or by way of smart advertising ex-perts. It must come from com-mon sense - a pattern for more simple and at the same time more gracious living.“

Frank Loyd WrightJanuary 1938

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TheSpanishcourtyardHouseisamodelthathasasmanyvariantsofadaptationasitdoessourcesofinfluence.Thecommonalityamongallexamplesistheadaptablebutconsistentreactiontoclimateandthepervasiveusedefinedbygrouphabitationwithinitsform.

Historically,courtyardhousesinIranandChinadatebackto3000B.C.Inmorerecenthistory,twotofourseparatehouseholdsmadeuptheouterformsurroundingtheinnerspace.Thecentralcourtsorpatiosoftencontainafountainorlushvegetation,andarethecommonplaceforcohabitantgatherings.Familiesoftenshareasinglekitchen,washroomsandotherserviceareasaswell.

AfteritsintroductiontotheNewWorld,thecourtyardmodelevolvedtomeetchangingdemandsofthehomelifeandthevariedenvironmentsoftheAmericas.InMexico,theabstractplanandformweremaintained,butexteriorsbecamehighlydecoratedandcolorfulduetopre-Columbianinfluence.TheSpanish-MexicanPatio housewasthemorevariegatedformcarriedbySpanishconquistadorestowhatarenowAmericanstates.Here,newvariantsemergedduetochangesinmaterialsandlaborforceavailableandvariationsinclimate.

•California:simplifiedformsandminimizeddetailsareduetothescarcityofskilledartisans,andcrudematerials...•Arizona:theinfluenceofthedesertcreatedsprawlinghorizontalformswithflat,uncelebratedandunseenroofs...•NewMexico:thePueblostylearisesasahybridoftheSpanishplanextrudedwithNativeAmericanmassing...•Texas:avarietyofmaterialsavailablecreatedthemissionhousesofdesertformbutwithvaultingroofforms...•Florida:moretropicalexpressionoftheformwascladinstuccowithprojectingbalconies,awnings,andshutters...

ThecommonelementsandlessonsoftheSpanishhousemodelareaconsistentacknowledgementofthesun,providingbothanescapefromitsbrightnessandheat,andreflectingitslightinwards.

living small historicalprecedents:

SpanishCourtyardHousehistoricalarchetypesresolvingboth

climatologicalandsociologicalneedsofhousing.

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green home

east austin

inspiration

OlderthanSpain,andcommontomaninallsunnyandwarmclimatesisthedesireforashadedretreatopentoallowairmovementanddirectlightwithinthehouse.Typicaloftheformaretherelativelyblankfacadesfacingtheouterworldandthemorevibrantcentralcourtyardorpatioprovidingshelterfromthesunandrespitefromtheouterworldinaprivateoutdoorlivingarea.

Passiveventilationisachievedviasmallerandtalleropen-ingsatouterwalls,largerandwideropeningsatinternalwalls,upliftoflowpressureabovethepatioinducedbybreezesfromanydirection,andatypicallayoutofonlysingleoropenspacesbetweenouterandinnerboundar-ies.Commonelementsthatsoftentheinneredgeofindoorandoutdoorincludearcadesandcolonnades.Variousindooractivitiesalsocarryoverintotheshadyandprivateoutdoorsthroughroomswithopenwallsorentirewallsmadeofoperabledoors.

living small historicalprecedents:

SpanishCourtyardHousehistoricalarchetypesresolvingboth

climatologicalandsociologicalneedsofhousing..

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green home

east austin

inspiration

ThetraditionalhouseofthecommonJapanesepeople,theminka,evolvedovertimeandwasadaptedtothefourseasonsoftheisland,butitsabstractmodelremainsfirmlyrootedinacultureoftradition.Thismodelprovidesspacedefinedbyhabitation,andaspecificmodule,thetatami,bywhichtheentirespacecanbelaidout.Thoughtheformhasadaptedtosubdivisionsofrooms,traditionally,theminkawasasingularspacewithfewpartitions,andthosewerealwaysremovable.

Totrulyunderstandthewayoflivingwithinaminka,onemustunderstandawayoflivingdefinednotbytheideaof“where”,butof“when”.Insteadofaroomorareahavingasinglepurposeanduse,asingleareaisusedformultiplepurposesthroughoutthedayandcanbetransformedintoaroomforprivacywhenneeded.

Likethecourtyardmodel,theminka addressestheneedforcomfortinhousingbyincorporatingpassivecooling,andincludinggardensandarecurringverandaelement.Thoughtheinteriorgardensareoftenopentothesky,coolingisprimarilyachievedthroughdeepoverhangsshadingexteriorwallsandadeeproofformthatprovidesinsulationfromheat.Also,gardensaretypicallyquitesmallandintendedtobeviewedandappreciatedmorethanoccupied.

Historically,thismodelwasalsoinhabitedbymorethanonefamily,butinJapanitone’shouse,notone’sfamily,thatrepresentedthesociologicalunitinthecommunity.One’shousedefinedone’sidentitybycombiningfamiliesinwaysmorethansocial.

living small historicalprecedents:TraditionalJapaneseMinka

historicalarchetypesresolvingbothclimatologicalandsociological

needsofhousing.

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green home

east austin

inspiration

living small historicalprecedents:TraditionalJapaneseMinka

historicalarchetypesresolvingbothclimatologicalandsociological

needsofhousing.

12

green home

east austin

inspiration

Thematerialsandconstructionadaptedtospecificgeographiescreatingdistinctregionalidentities,buttheminkahousefunctionandplanremainedintactastheactofdwellingwasintimatelyrelatedtotraditionalcustoms.Commonwereaverticaldivisionwhereentry,cookingandworkoccurredonthelowerearthenlevel,whilehabi-tationandsleepingoccurredontheupperwoodenfloor.Also,thespatialdivisionsandeventheorderofseatingweredeterminedbyrelationtoShintoand/orBuddhistshrineswhichdefinedactivitieseverymorningandnight.

Ateachnewyear,anentirecommunitywouldgatherinadifferenthome,designatedyearly,andcelebratebyremovingallshojiscreenstocreateonelargehall.Births,deathsandmarriageswerealsocausetotransformthehomeintoacommunalgatheringplace.Throughthevariousdefinitionofnodesforpathandplace,andformovementandrest,eventhesimplesthomewasoccu-piednewlythroughouttheyear.

living small historicalprecedents:CourtyardHouseElements

historicalarchetypesresolvingbothclimatologicalandsociological

needsofhousing.

Botharchetypesofhistoricalprecedentdefineelementsfortheconnectionofinteriorandexteriorspaces.Court-yardHouselayoutscommonlyincluderoomswithopenwallsorwallswithexpansesofdoors,thatcanmakedirectuseandtakeadvantageoftheambienttemperaturesandcirculationofairadjacenttoacourtyardwhiletrespassingthethresholdofprivateactivityandpublicspace.

Thetypicaloverlapoffunctioninthelivesofcohabitat-ingfamilieswithinbotharchetypesalsodefinescommonfunctionswithinsingularspaces.Asthecommoncourtspacewasdefinedbymultipleresidences,theoverallblockoftensharessingularcooking,storage,andlaundryareas.Thedailylivesofallinhabitantsoverlapwithinthesefacilities.Alwaysduringtimesofcelebration,butalsodaily,thecommonkitchenservesandisoccupiedbymembersofdifferentfamilies-poolingtimeaswellasresourcestocookifnottoalsoeatcommunally.1�

green home

east austin

inspiration

living small historicalprecedents:

MinkaHouseElementshistoricalarchetypesresolvingboth

climatologicalandsociologicalneedsofhousing.

Thezashki,orwashitsu,istheliving-dining-sleepingor,moresimply,themulti-purposeroomintheminka,andismeasuredintatamimats.Thedimensionsofatatamimattypicallymeasure3’-0”x6’-0”andarethemeansbywhichthespaceswithintheminkaaredefinedmultiplesofhumanscale.Thestandardroomismadeupofsixtoeightmats,andthespaceisusuallyexpandabletootherroomsandtotheoutdoorsbyslidingshojipanels.

Ofgreatsignificanceisthehalftatamivoidresultingfromthearrangementofmatsthatformsadesirablesquareroom.Thecentralsquareisoftenusedasapublicdiningareaorasapermanenthearth,withthehearthascenterofsharedcomfortablespaceinwinter.Measurementaccordingtotheveryhumanscaledtatami continuestobeusedtoday-ascanbeseenintheadvertisementforacondominiuminTokyo.

Thetraditionalshojiscreensoftheminkacanbeslidopentoenlargeandtransformprivateinteriorspacesintopublicinteriorspaces,ortoopeninteriorspacetoanin-teriororexteriorgarden,ortoeliminatewallsentirelytoprovidehorizonviewsoftheoutdoors.Shojiscreensarecriticaltotheminka archetype,astheycanalternativelycreateboththeopenspacenecessaryforagroup,andthedefinedprivacynecessaryforanindividual,bothwithinamuchsmallerratioofpersonstolivingarea.

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green home

east austin

inspiration

2

In our first exercise to imagine our own liv-ing small scenario, the most important needs that drove our design are dominantly safety, comfort, amenities, and the expression of self identity.

Each of these things needs to be dealt with at the appropriate scale, that of the neighbor-hood and that of each individual units. When is it appropriate to solve these problems using “collective form” and when is it appropriate for self expression? How can the relationship be-tween the unit and the whole begin to enrich the other and be successful at both scales?

These next few case studies provide different and inspiring solutions for small living with a focus on quality of life. In each, we can learn what elements makes a neighborhood a living area and what elements make a house be-come someone’s home.

Living Small The Scale of Small

4

“There is enormouse importance in natural contact from early childhood with a group larger than the fam-ily: the isolated family is today the normal one... Isola-tion leads to contact difficulties, with fear and aggres-siveness as the most predomininate social attitudes. this is especially obvious in larger cities.”

Ralph Erskin dedicated his practice of architecture to search for ideas appropriate for the dwelling. Evident in his planning for the Byker Housing Community in England, he strives to consider those elements of social livng that often gets overlooked.

Urban neighborhoods developement often ignore the amenities needed for such agegroups as infants or elderly people. Erskine divided the larger community of of 2317 dwellings into groups of smaller neighbor-hoods, sharing common public spaces. This way, the smaller community claims ownership of its public am-menities and takes care of it as part of a whole.

The “Byker Wall” functions as the element that unifies the communities as well as proctecting it. It blocks off noisy traffic and the north artic wind, creating a nicer microclimate for the neighborhoods within it. Units that makes up the wall in turn have a spectacular view over the Tyne River flowing through the city.

How much of the community becomes our own?

Living Small Housing and Communities

Top: Byker WallAbove: Interior courtyard

Right: Community Plan

6

In this entry for the Chicago mixed income housing competition, Stanley Soitowitz of Natoma Architects Inc. devise a scheme to divide the city block into nine smaller segments by an interior grid of corridor streets, turning the block into an urban village within itself.

The street becomes the shared public realm, vibrant with inhabitation, where units at each intersection provides shared ammenities such as a daycare center, neighborhood living room, laundromat, etc...

Each unit of housing withing the block have different advantages depending on the lifestyle of each inhabit-ant. The “live/work” units on the main street front have shops or workspaces in the lower level with the living space on the second floor. Interior units have more privacy being near interior courtyards and gardens.

The creative spatial arrangements of the units allow for every two units to share a common yard space. Col-lectively, the units reinforce the structure of the corridor streets clearly defining what is public and private.

Entry into each unit is through a welcoming yard branching from the village corridors. Interior arrange-ment minimizes hallspace and walls, leaving an open and flexible plan for the user.

How will we define public and private spaces? Are we willing to share our yard that would be consid-ered semipublic space?

Living Small A Symbiotic Relationship

Top: Street Corridor Above: Unit PLan and

Neighborhood Scheme Right: Shared Exterior Space

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“City Repair was formed in Portland, Oregon in 1996 by citizen activists who wanted a more community-oriented and ecologically sustainable society. Born out of a successful grassroots neighborhood initia-tive that converted a residential street intersection into a neighborhood public square, City Repair began its work with the idea that localization (of culture, of economy, of decision-making) is a necessary foundation of sustainability. By reclaiming urban spaces to create community-oriented places, we plant the seeds for greater neighborhood communication, empower our communities and nurture our local culture. “

The individuals come together to contribute and cre-ates places within the public spaces of the neighbor-hood to increase a sense of unity, enriching and sustain-ing the life of the neighborhood.

People generousely share their front yard for spon-taneous installations of a “poetry bench,” memorial, neighborhood library, etc... for others to enjoy as they stroll the streets.

The streets become vibrant with activities, creating safe and fun places for everyone to exchange ideas and exprience.

Is giving up our ownership of space and our own indiviudallity a sacrifies? What kind of image do we want for our own community?

Living Small Neighborhood Identity

Top: Yearly Intersection Repair ProjectAbove: Rowe Memorial

Right: Various Neighborhood Projects

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“One of the strangest sights in Tijuana is a row of vintage California bungalows resting atop a hollow one-story steel frame. Once destined for demolition across the border, they were loaded on trucks and brought south by developers who have sold them to local residents. To squeeze them into tight lots, many homeowners mount them on frames so they can use the space underneath for shops, car repair and the like. On one site, a pretty pink bungalow straddles a narrow driveway between two existing houses, as if a child were casually stacking toy houses.”

Using this as an inspiration, Teddy Cruz extracts a strat-egy for development that is rooted in local traditions, a design for a 12-unit housing proposal in San Ysidro, an immigrant community accross the US- Mexico border from Tijuana. A block-long semipublic loggia serves as its centerpiece. The loggia will function as a shared communal space for markets, festivals and other social events.

A row of delicate wood housing units on top of the frame will heighten the contrast between private and public zones. Each unit is conceived as a series of inter-locking rooms that can be broken down into two one-bedroom units or pieced together for large families.

The entire site will be bisected by a semipublic garden that connects the mian street back to an alleyway that serves as a thoroughfare for immigrants on their way to work.

How can tradition be incorporated into the dwell-ing? How much privacy are we willing to give up for the community?

Living Small Tradition and the Community Needs

Top: TijuanaAbove:Vintage Bungalow on Framing

Right: Casa Familiar From Its Inspirations

Living Small How can you make a small house, big?

a toolkit

Thankfully we’re not trying to make a teepee feel like the Biltmore, but in the following pages you will find ten tools for making a 1000 sq ft house feel like a mansion. We can’t lay claim to the fact that this is a complete toolkit or that ten tools are all you need, but the following should be considered a thoughtful guide and starting point. Keep in mind that a house is like a big machine and you’re probably going to need to use more than one tool to create a big small house.

make a small footprint

make’m work for it

create views

i can see you, sort of

highs + lows

consolidate services

swiss army knife spaces

love the great outdoors

create personal spaces

make it special

ten tools for making a big small house:

12

“What we build are shelters for the soul as well as homes for bodies.” -Samuel Mockbee

Lucy is a very religious woman. What she needed most in her home is a place she can call her own santuary. What the Rural Studio gave her is a home and a chapel. Often in designing houses, we focus so intensely on the efficiency and sustainability in the physical and metal sense, but seldom the spiritual sense. We forget that the most fulfilling elements of a home takes up no space at all.

The Lucy House serves as an example of a sustainable, affordable, and beautiful home. Its walls are made of recycled carpet tiles that gives the house a vibrant and lively look as well as unmatched insulation. Though small, the house seems spacious with well lit interiors and a complex material pallete. Lucy’s Bedroom is her chapel high off the ground and giving her a heavenly view of the sky. The cozy family room unerneath the tower serves dualy as a tornado shelter. Her children now have quiet rooms to study in and their grades have improved significantly in school.

Every household is different, in tradition, in lifestyle, in needs, in lifestage. Since we are priviledged with a chance to interact with a specific client, we have no excuse to make a house anything less than a “shelter for the soul.”

What do you need from your home? How can the house become an expression of you?

Living Small Individual Needs and Self Identity

Top: Lucy’s BedroomRight: Lucy’s House and family

Living Small How can you make a small house, big?

make a small footprint

In many respects, the alley flat is not a new phenom-enom in Austin. Throughout Austin, some of the most coveted rental properties are the two story garages and granny flats that often occupy the rear portion of properties (often abutting an alley). Aside from being quaint and optimally sized for a bachelor or a couple without children, they provide secondary income for the property owner and typically provide parking or storage spaces below.

If this precedent is thoughtfully modernized and abstracted, a wide array of architectural, social and cultural possibilities may be realized: improved views and feeling of openess; a greater sense of privacy; and spaces for other activities such as the market stalls rep-resented in Teddy Cruz’s work or shaded social spaces for meals or just jammering on with passing friends when it’s hot outside.

making a small footprint can:

create better views from the house

allow for a greater feeling of openess

help better cool the house

create shaded social spaces for jammering with friends or eating meals

create places for small outdoor businesses

Living Small How can you make a small house, big?

enter smartly or make’m work for it

how can you make’m work for it?

use stairs, a porch or a vestibule to create transi-tion zones for the house- not quite public, not quite private

make the door perpendicular to the street or enter from the side of the house

zig zag the entrance hallway

enter along the longest wall of the house

place a window or point of focus directly oppo-site the entrance to the house

How you enter a place or building can have a big impact on how big or special it feels. If you can walk into a building without having to step up or step down, the building often feels less important. Likewise houses that allow you directly walk into the main space often feel smaller and less private.

The best rule of thumb in this game is to make people work for it and then give them a reward.

What in the world do I mean? Well, by making people work a little harder to get in your house for example by climbing some stairs or walking across a porch, it makes the seem larger, more special and gives you some added privacy.

Frank Lloyd Wright didn’t always use stairs but he did make people turn before entering the house, thereby partially separating it from the street. He also had a couple of other tricks up his sleeve for making his Usonian houses seem much larger than their 1000 sq ft. In the Jacobs House he made the hallways zig zag too. When you can’t see all the way down a hallway, if there’s something just around the corner then the house will seem bigger than if the hall was simply straight. He also designed the entrance so that you entered the house along the longest wall in the house., making it seem much more spacious.

And now for the reward: one great trick is to put a win-dow or point of focus directly opposite the entrance door. The window focuses your eyes beyond the house, making it feel larger. Alternately, a point of focus such as a niche tricks your mind into focusing on it instead of trying to immediately understand the size of the space.

Living Small How can you make a small house, big?

views, views and more views

Very few people would like to have a house without windows. Most would say that it makes them feel trapped; they need sunlight; and it’s often nice to see what’s going on outside. That being said throwing up a couple of windows doesn’t necessarily solve any of the above-mentioned problems. Likewise, a house in which it is possible to completely understand

Creating a variety of thoughtful views in a small house can make the house seem larger. It is generally best if the windows are placed to focus attention on things outside of the house that are beautiful. One commonly held approach by architects is that windows should be placed at three different heights. This causes the eyes to focus on a variety of places in the house, tricking the brain into thinking the space is larger. Some architects take this one step further by using niches, mirrors and architectural detail to distract an inhabitant’s eyes.

how can you create views, views and more views?

place windows at three different heights

use skylights or highly placed windows to cap-ture light but also draw your eyes to the sky

create strong views through the house that get people excited but don’t let’em see everything, make’m work for it

in a rectangular house, create views on the long side to make the house seem wider

use other objects and architectural details such as pictures, mirrors and niches to focus the eyes at a variety of places in the house

Living Small How can you make a small house, big?

make swiss army knife spaces

The hard reality of living in 1000 sq ft or less is that it is impossible to have a separate space for every need or use. In fact, research indicates that even people who do own homes with many rooms only use a small percent-age of those spaces on a regular basis. Somehow, there remains a portion of ancestors in our psyche who lived in one or two room structures, often accompanied by their extended family.

Swiss army knife spaces are essential to living in a small house, especially if you don’t want it to feel like a fron-tier cabin. Often this can be accomplished through very simple design decisions. By stopping one of the walls a little early, the staircase on the opposite page also functions as an informal seating area for the kitchen. It can also be helpful to design rooms/ spaces around multiple similar activities.

Being able to move things (walls, doors, windows, furniture, storage, awnings) also allows rooms or spaces to accommodate a variety of activities and numbers of people. Many architects have run wild with this concept, creating houses that might as well be a Trans-former. The reality though is that research also indicates that full transformative capacity of these houses is rarely used by their owners. However, simple things like pocket and sliding doors, and stowaway/movable furni-ture have been in consistent use for hundreds of years.

how can you make swiss army knife spaces?

use curtains, awnings, pocket /sliding doors or moveable panels to create spaces that can be either big or small, outdoors or indoors.

use moveable shelves and furniture that can slide away or compact when not in use

design spaces for multiple ‘like’ activities

thoughtfully place walls and stairs to create infor-mal seating

Living Small How can you make a small house, big?

i can see you, sort of

Although creating a sense of privacy is absolutely important (without which it would feel even smaller) when designing a house for living small, creating a visual connection between the interior of the house and the outdoors or amongst the various spaces of the house can make it feel much larger.

Replacing a solid wall with one that is translucent allows light and even shadows to come into the house, but maintains privacy- interior walls can also be replaced for a similar effect. Some architects create walls that have operable louvers or panels in which the resident can adjust how much light enters the house or how private they want it to feel. The same effects can be achieved much more simply by building a rain screen in front of a window.

W.G. Clark, an architect in Charlottesville, Va. often will replace solid corners of the house with glass/ glass block or put windows right below the roof line to make it seem like the house continues beyond its walls. He also will vary wall heights in his houses so that you can see just a little bit of a room at the other end of the house, but not all of it. This also helps make the house seem larger without compromising the privacy of its various rooms.

how?

replace solid walls with glass or translucent ones

use glass for corners to create a sense of openess

build a louvered wall, use shutters or make a rain screen

place windows below the rooflne

vary the wall heights of interior spaces.

Living Small How can you make a small house, big?

consolidate, consolidate

It is commondly undertood that things are more effi-cient when they are closer together and this absolutely holds true for buildings. One of the keys to designing a big small house is thoughtfully locate things that are similar and maximize all unused spaces.

For example it is not only more efficient to locate all plumbing, appliances and major electrical together (next to or on top of ), it is also more affordable and less space is given up to hiding pipes, etc.. Spatially this means that the living spaces can feel more open and uncluttered. Consolidating these services into one core can also be used to subdivide a large open space into a series of smaller spaces without adding walls. The separation of the service from the living in the original dogtrot due to fire hazard, created an exterior space that was often more frequently used by families than its interior counterpart. Also the move performed through necessity created a cooling mechanism for the entire structure.

Staircases and other means of circulation such as hallways offer great opportunities to maximize space in a small home as they are often underutilized spaces. Things such as storage, bathrooms, shelves, kitchens and even study spaces can be fit in, around and under these elements.

what can you consolidate?

divide the house for service and living

utilities- put all of your things that require plumbing and large amounts of electricity in one area or directly above each other if the house has two stories

use the consolidated service elements of the house to separate a larger space into a series of smaller spaces

take advantage of staircases and passageways for storage,

use bookshelves and storage cabinets as walls

Living Small How can you make a small house, big?

high ceilings, low ceilings

1000 or 850 sq ft might seem like a small patch of prop-erty but it doesn’t have to. For thousands of years archi-tects, engineers, master builders, and the clergy have understood how high ceilings can be used to impress, intimidate or even overwhelm people. By making the ceilings of house higher, you could accomplish the above listed things, but you can also simply make the house feel more spacious; improve air circulation and acoustics; and define more public areas.

Is that all? Well no. For a thousand years, people have also understood that lower ceilings create more per-sonal, individual and comforting spaces.- areas that you might sleep or work on the computer.

By using both high and low ceilings you can define ar-eas or zones of activity within a house without having to use walls or even furniture to block off these spaces. This can be quite beneficial when trying to either cre-ate a flexible house that can accomodate lots of differ-ent acitivities or one that has good natural ventilation.

why high and low ceilings?

a small space with high ceilings will feel much larger

high ceilings can also improve acoustics and air circulation in small spaces

using high and low ceilings can help define spaces or activity zones without having to close off a space walls

high ceilings help create more public zones in the house- spaces for larger groups of people

low ceilings help create more personal, intimate spaces

Living Small How can you make a small house, big?

create personal spaces

One of the greatest challenges of living in a small shared space is finding privacy. If it is impossible to feel alone, to recharge, to be undistracted by the hustle and bustle, then the house will probably feel even smaller than it actually is in reality.

How do you create personal spaces/ areas in such a small house?

Well, there a number of ways to do this. Some, such as as curtain or furniture can be simply added on after the house has been built. But the most effective way of cre-ating personal spaces is by considering them from the outset of the design process. In fact this can even drive the developement of the design. The UNStudio verti-cally shifted rooms of a house they designed in New York to create exterior spaces that allow for a degree of personal privacy that would exist if all of the rooms were lined up in a row. Rem Koolhaas temporarily dropped a level of the floor at the McCormick Student building at IIT to create an area for students to check their email. He could have accomplished this with walls but that would have cluttered the space, blocked off views and hurt circulation.

Sometimes personal space can be created simply by changing the surface of the floor or through furniture placement.

how can you create personal spaces?

shift and split the volumes/ spaces of the build-ing to create nook and cranny or in-between spaces

raise or lower the height of the floor to create semi-private spaces that are removed from the hustle and bustle

put a seat in a window

change the floor surface to define a personal seating area

use glass or curtains to create simple personal spaces

lower the ceiling height to create a more person-ally scaled area

Living Small How can you make a small house, big?

love the great outdoors

In Texas, especially in the summer, it is quite normal to want to close all of the windows and doors, and turn the A.C. down to 60 degrees. Unfortunately this ap-proach to dealing with our climate makes it really hard to live small and affordably. Thankfully there a num-ber of simple things that can be done to significantly improve the efficiency of a house, keeping you from having to open your checkbook or mop your brow as often as you might otherwise.

Sure, everyone knows about solar power and it is definitely something to consider when building a new house, but there are a couple of much more simple things that can be done when designing a house to ease the pain on your wallet and minimize your sweat-ing.

In the days before air conditioning many people in warmer climates would elevate their house on short stilts or build in a grove of trees. A number of cultures created devices such as wind scoops to grab breezes and filter them through the house.

how can you love the great outdoors?

elevate your house above the ground, allowing air to pass underneath

orient the house to take best advantage of southern and northern light

create a secondary roof to create shade for your house

incorporate a solar chimney to promote proper airflow for heating and cooling your house

position the house or design elements to ‘grab’ prevalent winds during the warmest months and protect from cold winds during the coolest months

gather rainwater in a cistern and incorporate it into the design of the house to take advantage of its heating and cooling properties

Living Small How can you make a small house, big?

put a ribbon on it

The movie, The Fast and the Furious was a pretty bad movie. The acting was terrible and the plot was lacking but its focus on souped-up, customized Honda Civics did celebrate very natural human tendencies- a desire to have ownership of something; to at least appear to be slightly different then those around us; and to have the things that we own in some way be a reflection of ourselves.

Often the size of something (a house, a car or a present) matters little if it is unique, thoughtful or special. Of course it is most important that a house be designed around a client’s primary needs and activities., but often something a little extra special, a flourish will give the house a feeling of greater importance.

how can you put a ribbon on it?

celebrate the client’s primary needs, activities or priorities

economize in materials and detail in the least important parts of the house so that extra atten-tion can be lavished on the most important

create elements that might be standard amongst the alley flats but that can be custom-ized by the owner- different materials for

customize or tailor the design to fit the site

Traditional Plan

Which do you prefer?

Open Plan

Open or Regimented Confi guration When considering how to live in a small space, its confi guration becomes the basis for the arrangement of furniture and their role in the home. In traditional planned homes, containing defi ned rooms with ex-pressed function, the inhabitant usually moves through a series of interstitial space i.e. hallways, foyers, closed stairways. These parts of the home serve a transitional role and offset the functionality of other spaces. In an open planned home, the expanse of space can lead to an ambiguity of function. With the removal of the majority of walls, the responsibility of defi ning space and denoting a room’s purpose falls on the furnish-ings. Thus when considering a traditional verse open planned home, the living patterns are established by walls or furnishings respectively. For the purpose of this research, the following explorations will center around the implications of the open plan, as it is widely used as a successful device for designing small, effi cient spaces. Furniture and the modern open home have an interde-pendence worth exploring, particularly as the structure and form of the buildings and the furniture become in-creasingly similar. While this is not a new phenomenon, the relationship between the two have distinct affect on modern living patterns, heightened by technology and industrialization in the 20th century.

living small in plan

Top: Open planAbove: Traditional Plan

Right: Interior Images of Different Spacial Arrangements

Top: Case Study House # 8 (Eames House)Above: Interior Photos

Right: Interior Photo Showing Charles and Ray Eames

a machine for living and its parts In response to a housing need, Charles and Ray Eames produce a new kind of open-plan house, novel in that at every scale the house is a treasise of a new manner of living. The resultant is a wholistic answer to the ques-tions posed by the Case Study program, rethinking the construction, arrangement, function and furnishings of the modern home. The photographs taken of the Eames house after its completion reveal a lively space, full of personal items, an array of furniture arranged in a livable manner, and often people inhabiting the space in a casual manner. This portrayal places great importance on the functionality and fl exibility of the furnishings, mirrored in the construction and materiality of the structure’s skin. In fact the Eames House, with its industrial origins and playful colorfulness, operates in a parallel vein as say an Eames Plastic Side Chair: industri-ally manufactured, simple kit-of-parts assembly, and a universal functionality. The furniture is light and thus movable, often serving a variety of functions in the new open and ambiguous environment. Ultimately the rela-tionship of the house to the furniture is a relationship of one object to another.

living small case study house #8

designing for appliances, the object’s role in the home The increased inter-relationship between furniture and a new way of life is seen through the emergence of advertisements associated with new housing develop-ments. Increasingly the incorporation of new appliances and modern components are utilized to sell the ideas and new functionality of the modern, small, inexpensive home. It furthers the opinion set forth by Eames at this time that the house is a ‘machine for living.’ The avail-ability of mass produced appliances and other products allows for customizing, adding to the responsibilities of the home as a receptacle for tools of modern home life. Design then, where economy of space and resources are key, must be rooted in effi ciency and practicality.

living small products and ads

Top: Werkbund Ad Above: Kitchen Ads Associated with Levitt Town Right: Ads and Products Associated with the

Case Study Houses

How closely associated are appliances with the idea of home? What do they tell us about the perceived need of the home to function as a machine?

the relationship of defi ned need and fl exibility The functionality of the furniture arrangement, as a series of components, leads to the careful exhibition spaces seen in the Herman Miller Showroom or in the Detroit Institute of Art’s Exhibition for Modern Living in 1949. Here the best use of the volume of a room is carefully studied and the solution for living is found in the dynamic relationship of the furniture, space and occupant. Again fl exibility and the accommodation for multiple activities is provided by the movability of the objects to service the “necessities and character of the American community” at the time. The Eames Contract Storage system developed in 1961 for Herman Miller displays a solution to small institutional spaces such as dormitories. Here the necessities of student life are defi ned and accounted for in a single unit, that is refi ned to accommodate a variety of users. This product displays an anticipation and simplifi cation of need as the responsibility of the designer when working in small spaces. The ideas of fl exibility and control in spacial planning are analogous to the construction and use of the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman. The assembly of parts is very precise and prescribed, designed specifi -cally to the needs of the human body; yet due to its moveability and distinction of chair and ottoman, its use and placement are open.

living small assembly

Top: Color Plan of Eames Offi ce Display Above: Lounge Chair and Ottoman Assembly Right: Herman Miller Show Room and Contract Storage Design

What is the relationship of the body to furniture?Do you want to move independently from it or be informed in your movement by its presence?

objectifying the home Featured in Life magazine on October 11, 1954, Ken Isaac presents his solution to cramped living quarters in the Living Structures. These experimental constructions embody the spirit of the Eames Case Study House #8, both in appearance and in their roots in consumerism. In effect Isaac reduced the home into an object defi ned my its placelessness and universal nature. Like Eamesian furniture, production and assembly are inherent in the fi nal design, as is the accommodation for a variety of different users. The Living Structure reduced the needs of a home to a sleeping space, dining and social space and storage. As the photo to the right shows, person-alization of the home is also accommodated for. This version of the home indicates the increasing interde-pendence of the home and its furnishings by blurring the line between the two.

living small home as furniture

Top & Right: Ken Isaac’s Living Structure

kitchen

dining

living

bedroom

How can one activity or space buffer another? How close can you really live and what is the desired level of privacy?

Japanese Pavilion with shoji screens

plan of space with screen divider

the domestic model Today in current work, the functions of the home and human needs are investigated through the work of Andrea Zittel. Her Living Units seem to pick up where Isaac’s structures left off, exploring the possibility of combining and consolidating functions in the home. She also reintroduced the idea of movability, present in Eamesian furniture and spacial arrangements. Again, the need for sleeping space, dinning, socializing and storage are addressed with prominence. These Units serve as installations or contained objects, and seem to be the three-dimensional embodiment of spacial and movement diagrams. Zittel highlights the tension be-tween theory and usefulness in the prescriptive nature of need-based design.

living small home as object

Top: A-Z Living Unit (closed) Above: A-Z Living Unit Right: A-Z Management and Maintenance Unit

What transformation tool do we have to adapt space according to function? How prescriptive can our living patterns be?

a further reduction of space In a further reduction of the spacial re-lationships inherent in the functions of the home, Zittel fl attens the dinning room, bed room, and living room into two-dimensional planes for her Carpet Furniture project. Theses are another combination of the diagram and furniture. At fi rst glance they are a parody or a rep-resentation of an action, but they remain functional if the act of eating or sleeping, for example, is rethought. In her Ottoman Furniture the need for fl exibility and multipurpose objects are addressed, as the ottoman provides for a sleeping, socializing and storage space in one unit. Again modularity and movability are key in the adaptive ability of furniture in a small space.

living small objectifying spacial relations

Top: A-Z Ottoman Furniture (as bed and storage) Above: A-Z Ottoman Furniture (as seating)

Right: A-Z Carpet Furniture

How can a building skin’s relative thick-ness or thinness be related to furniture? Can the vertical surfaces be treated as design objects in themselves to provide storage or denote space?

personifying the object In current iterations of the small, capsule-like home, the furniture, mechanics, structure and aesthetics seem to have melded into one, creating a new vocabulary for the home. Assembly, like the Eames house and furniture is important, as is fl exibility of location and also of the actual skin and structure. The home has borrowed and adapted the language of modern furniture and technol-ogy, while furniture and objects have become increas-ingly simplifi ed and planar. These evolutions in form and function are tied back to the redefi nition of need in a modern life and in the increasing requirement for high functionality as spaces decrease.

living small object as home

Top: Hot House Artifact Above: Hot House Artifact Assembly Diagram

Right: Small Houses & Diagrams

When the home becomes so object like, how is it personalized and adapted to its inhabitants and location?

Interior of Neutra’s CSH #20

space and community as object As the home is further and further reduced with mass production and industrialization post WWII, it is un-derstood as an independent unit of highly functional requirements. The idea of increased mechanization seen in Eames’ Case Study House becomes a realized aesthetic in the 60’s, as designers combine units of liv-ing into complexes. Moshe Safdie’s Habitat for the 1967 Design Expo in Montreal and Kurokawa’s Capsule Tower in Tokyo 1970 exist as objects in space, picking up the cubic, compartmentalized form of objects. Interestingly enough, their interiors do not operate as spaces fi lled with objects or furniture, but as specialized functional surfaces, akin to the Eames Compact Storage design. These spaces, particularly The Capsule Tower, are a com-plete pairing down of needs, and the space is designed as a machine to response to the basic human functions.

living small home as machine

Top: Detail of Capsule Connection Above: Interior of Capsule

Right: Kurokawa’s Capsule Tower and Moshe Safdie’s Habitat

If the home operates at the scale of the object, what relationship should the objects have to each other to create a sense of community? If small interior spaces prohibit comfortable social inhabitation, how should outdoor spaces supple-ment this activity?