Hamlet’s famous declaration, ‘I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space’, has poignant resonance in this era of dense urban living. As denizens of the world’s cities battle for seclusion and privacy in an increasingly overpopulated environment, architects are finding innovative and imaginative means of maximising space.
As reported in W*60, the concept of capsule living continues to fascinate and inspire. Compact, pared-down environments promise that elusive ideal of simple living. The following projects demonstrate the results that can be achieved when one is faced with a paucity of space or the obstacle of awkward sites. Each displays a shrewd utilisation of every millimetre and employs cunning techniques to give the illusion of capaciousness. The space may not be infinite, but the possibilities are.
Minnesota WeeHouse
A desire to create modern, affordable housing that is accessible to a variety of people inspired Minnesota-based Warner + Asmus Architects to develop a simple, portable solution. Its first WeeHouse was designed for a violinist and her young son. ‘It was her weekend getaway, a decompression zone, essentially a log cabin in the country,’ says architect Paul Stankey. The location, a small plot on Minnesota farmland, was remote and lacking in basic facilities, so the house was prefabricated and transported whole. Instant housing, transported by truck, is nothing new in space-abundant America. However, Warner + Asmus promises a miraculous 12-week construction and delivery for clients in the lower 48 states. ‘If you order your house and furniture at the same time, your house will probably turn up first,’ says Stankey.The design is box simple: a steel and wood frame with Andersen glazing. Each house will be customised to an extent. Clients can choose the position of the glazing and porches, the type of heating system and a variety of upgrades. The WeeHouse is only limited by its portability – there is a 14ft width and 62ft length maximum on portable homes in the US – but units can be stacked three-high or laid side by side.
Warner + Asmus is investigating logistics, including shipping to Europe. ‘We can build a bunch right now,’ says Geoffrey Warner, ‘but we don’t want to start until we can ensure things will run smoothly.’ The firm hopes to be taking orders by June.
The WeeHouse has back-to-basics appeal. As Stankey says, ‘The trend in the US is the bigger the better and it’s quite appalling; it’s great to live a simpler life.’ Yet not everybody wants a little house on the prairie. Requests include putting a WeeHouse on a barge in California and on top of a Manhattan apartment block – it seems the sky’s the limit.
Paris cube
Residential new-build opportunities are a rarity in Paris. As Jean-Brice Viaud of Fassio+Viaud Architects says: ‘It’s a very ruled city.’ So when he was approached by a client who’d purchased a vacant lot in the 11th arrondissement, he leapt at the chance of designing her family home. Obtaining planning permission was eased by the fact that an architect had already won permission to erect a modern timber house on the right-hand neighbouring site.Viaud’s brief was to build a house that was ‘very symmetrically perfect and simple’, yet the infill site couldn’t have been more uneven. The entire left side funnels towards the rear, due to the oblique angle of the neighbouring building. Resisting the temptation to build an oddly shaped house, Viaud designed what is essentially a three-storey pine cube.
‘The house is basic geometry: it’s four squares, each measuring 3.6m x 3.6m, with nine pillars holding it up,’ says Viaud. A compact spiral staircase connects the house’s three levels, with kitchen and living spaces arranged on the ground floor, children’s bedrooms on the first floor, and the master bedroom, guest room and studio above.
Inventively capitalising on all available space, the architects put the two remaining angular plots on the site to good use; the one adjacent to the house doubles up as a garage, with a roof terrace above, and the larger 50 sq m enclosure at the rear was transformed into a garden. The rear of the house is glazed and configured so that all the bedrooms have a view out over the garden.
‘Urban living was not something the client originally had in mind,’ says Viaud. ‘She had always dreamt of a house in the countryside. But this was too good an opportunity to miss, so we carefully modified her designs to suit a city location.’
Cologne town house
Manuel Herz’s creation – angular, red and reaching for the sky from its narrow plot – appears defiant against its mundane surroundings. Herz says his bold architecture is both an expression of and a reaction to its location in the southern Cologne district of Bayenthal – a defunct neighbourhood with an industrial past that he calls a ‘suburb of discontent’.The building is evocative of the dynamism of Daniel Libeskind’s desconstructionalist oeuvre, and it’s no surprise to learn that Herz spent two years working with him in the 1990s. ‘Obviously there is a synergy, a fascination of form and sculptural space,’ he says. More vitally, he shares Libeskind’s radicalism, a useful trait considering the developer’s brief was ‘to create architecture with a capital A’.
The five-storey concrete construction consists of two starkly different volumes superimposed on each other: one a virtually translucent rectangle that follows all planning regulations, the other a technically ‘illegal’ free-form red shell. So how did Herz’s subversive approach gain planning approval?
‘I argued honestly and proved that if I followed the law, the results would be terrible,’ he says. ‘To create exceptional architecture it is necessary to break the law.’ After 15 months, honesty prevailed. Then the €750,000 project took a further 15 months to build.
Herz’s design maximises the narrow plot by squeezing in 400 sq m of real estate. The property consists of a basement and ground-floor office, with two apartments above. Red polyurethane provides an insulating skin for the upper, three-floored apartment, and retains the cohesive sculptural quality of raw concrete. To compensate for the lack of horizontal space and to add light, Herz created atriums in the apartments.
Support is garnered from the party walls of the neighbouring buildings. Each floor slab was slotted into the adjacent walls, causing much disruption to the neighbours. ‘Space was tight, so we had to take advantage of what was there. Now it’s over, I hope they like it.’ Although not too much. Ever the radical, Herz knows that pleasing everyone is the route to mediocrity. ‘If I only received positive feedback, something would be wrong. When someone is against it, at least they have considered architecture.’
Hakone holiday home, Japan
As the high-rising density of Tokyo forces urbanites to seek alternative environments, holiday villages are proving an increasingly popular escape. Weekend bolt-holes are not just for the rich; the middle classes are embracing the rural retreat, too. Like the retired couple who commissioned Moriko Kira Architects to create this house in the holiday village of Hakone, 120km south-west of the capital.‘They wanted the feeling of nature and a sense of wide-open space,’ says Tokyo-born, Amsterdam-based architect Moriko Kira. Even in Hakone, density is high, private plots usually measure only 300 sq m, and the area is classified as urban. The client’s plot faces the street to the south, mountain forests to the north and is surrounded by other lots. Fulfilling the couple’s ‘call of the wild’ dream required canny logic.
Kira transformed a basic, open-plan rectilinear cedar structure, measuring 90 sq m, by shifting portions of the main volume to create more intimate pockets of space and private views of nature. The front and back of the house are staggered, and the resulting spatial indentations provide smaller areas of privacy, internally and externally. These define areas such as the kitchen, lounge and bathroom inside and a central patio outside. ‘The private side, where we had to place the large, open living room, is north-facing,’ says Kira, ‘but the forest it looks out on catches all the light from the south.’
The architects have made use of the character provided by a saddleback roof. ‘The further from the pitch point, the lower and more intimate the space within the house,’ says Kira. Walls closest to the pitch point feature floor-to-ceiling glazing, maximising light and the sense of space. The house, including under-floor heating and furnishings, cost €200,000 – not bad for your own private wilderness.
Manhattan artist’s loft pod
This renovation of a duplex loft in Manhattan’s SoHo, by CS Paik Architects, LLC and Donn Kermanshachi, turns maximising space into an art form.The apartment was a gift to artist Sylvia Martins from her husband, the late Constantine Niarchos. ‘The great thing is that it is purely for her work,’ says Cary Paik (she has an uptown home, as well as this downtown pad). ‘We made the downstairs very minimalist, so that she can concentrate on painting.’
The single-use purpose of the duplex rendered private enclosures obsolete, allowing the architects to take spatial liberties. Existing configurations and a space-engulfing central staircase were ripped out to create what is essentially a 1,100 sq ft white oblong, overlooked by an anegre timber-lined, limestone-tiled mezzanine. Steep ‘ship-like’ timber and metal ladder stairs, aggressively sloped to take up minimal space, connect the two areas.
‘The upstairs area has an altogether warmer, more womb-like atmosphere. It’s for when the client stays late,’ explains Donn Kermanshachi. ‘It also allows her the opportunity to look down on her work in a more contemplative state.’
The living ‘pod’ is relatively open-plan – a ‘floating’ wall partially divides the desk and sleeping area from the washbasin and walk-in shower. ‘Different types of spaces continuously engage,’ says Kermanshachi. A steel catwalk extends along one wall, enabling Martins to hang work above, utilising the full height of the wall to display her paintings.
It’s extraordinarily economical architecture, structured by multi-functional features: the desk wall is a storage cabinet; an aluminium panel disguises linen storage and swings open to become the shower door; and on the ground floor, a pivoting white wall can display art or screen off the kitchenette.
It’s all artfully seamless; doors are flush and clutter is absent. The entry intercom and technology are hidden behind a door beneath the stairs and there is ample rack storage in the entrance hall for the client’s canvases. ‘In every nook and cranny there’s somewhere to put something,’ says Paik.
‘But it’s not only about storage – we’re hiding things, too; devices we have no design control over are covered, so that the space is free of distractions.’
INFORMATION
Warner + Arsmus Architects, tel: 1.651 647 6650, Fassio+Viaud Architects, tel: 33.1 43 56 00 66, e-mail: f-v-h@wanadoo.fr Manuel Herz, tel: 49.221 932 9293, Moriko Kira Architects, tel: 31.20 423 0303, CS Paik Arch
- Website
- http://www.warnerasmus.com
