Smallhouse
"The house I would like would include a large space where one could eat, sleep and work" William Morris said. The "smallhouse" responds to this ideal by an innovative concept developed within the Wood 2000 research project.
There are people everywhere, but there is always space for more detached houses in a suburban commuter belt. The houses are often small, but the gardens are large. That is the perfect spot for this little wooden gem. The small house can be used by parents making space for the next generation, by a growing child or as a residential studio. In other words it restores an organized three-generation household as a viable option. From a different perspective, this house is the apartment for the minimum requirements of our times. The architects aimed to design a low-cost building and the house poses an old question in a new way: What do we really need? The answer is: a small box is sufficient. It obstinately stands as an object of truth amidst all the surrounding opulence.
The sharp-edged cube is completely pre-fabricated at the works and assembled within a day. It is built on a pier-and-beam or strip foundation, and can easily be dismantled and reassembled elsewhere.
Four large windows provide views in four directions, highlighting the fact that this building is intended as a detached construction. On both floors, there is a continuous room that is divided in the middle by large standing furniture. The downstairs kitchen separates the dining and living rooms. Upstairs, the bathroom block separates the bedroom and study. The storey-high windows not only provide light, but also extend the small rooms outwards into the surrounding environment, which should be imagined as a garden. This house represents applied underlying research, as the architects investigate what is really necessary.
