Today, AD joins architect Beatriz Ramo in Rotterdam to tour The Cabanon, a space that claims to be the biggest smallest apartment in the world. When Beatriz and her husband, Bernd Upmeyer, discovered that a tiny 74-square-foot storage room had become available in their apartment building, they knew it was the start of their next design project. The couple envisioned fitting a whole apartment comprising four rooms into the tiny space. Through the construction of an ingenious wooden insert the couple managed to fit a bathroom, bedroom, kitchen/living space, and even a spa into such a tiny space–compartments fold out when needed and slot perfectly back into place when the resident’s activity changes.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Cavanon is a French word that means cabin, or hut, or shed.
00:09And we took the name because Le Corbusier, who is the most famous architect of the 20th
00:14century and in the south of France, he built for himself a little wooden cabin, he called
00:20it Le Cavanon, where he wanted to experiment with the minimum cell for living.
00:24I'm Beatriz Ramo, welcome to the Cavanon, our 74 square feet apartment in Rotterdam.
00:54My partner and I, we live in this building since 2006 and we never heard about this space
01:04here in the seventh floor.
01:05And then one day we found a note, like a handwritten note in the board, in the entrance, and a
01:12neighbor was saying that he was selling this sort of storage space.
01:16So we called immediately and then we discovered this space and we were fascinated because
01:21it was a storage space that had a huge window overlooking the city and it had a toilet connection
01:27and it had heating and electricity and warm water and cold water.
01:32In that moment, we didn't have a clue what we were going to do with that.
01:36Normally, we are the architects of a project for somebody else.
01:40We took advantage that we were the clients in order to also take the assignment a bit
01:45more to the extreme, in a bit more radical way.
01:54I think it's very unique in the sense of the spatial experience that it offers.
02:00It has in itself four totally different rooms and four totally different spaces.
02:06So that was for me the surprise, like such a small space could still be subdivided in
02:12four and each of them being a totally different world.
02:17It was meant to be our spa plus a guest room and it developed into an apartment, probably
02:22the smallest apartment in the world.
02:26The process of the design of the Cabanon was actually pretty long.
02:29It was never a continuous process.
02:31So we always work whenever we had a bit of free time from our office projects.
02:36And we tested physical models, we tested in the computer, but by designing and testing,
02:42we realized the more we were subdividing the Cabanon, somehow the bigger it was getting paradoxically.
02:49We work with two very talented workers.
02:52He is a very talented carpenter and metal worker, and she is an artist.
02:57They both live in a boat, so they are used to work with small surfaces.
03:01So every detail is meticulously done.
03:04You cannot allow yourself mistakes because they are going to be visible.
03:08So they really understood exactly how the space needed to be executed.
03:15We were on a quite tight budget, so we really tried to optimize also the cost.
03:20When we bought the Cabanon, it was only 11,000 euros.
03:24When it comes to the construction, like the hours we paid, the carpenter and the materials,
03:29we also tried to optimize that.
03:31And in total, it cost around 21,000 euros.
03:38We are now in the living room of the Cabanon.
03:41It's a space of three meters high.
03:44It has a huge window that makes the space much bigger than it is.
03:50And here we wanted to have a window bench where we like to read or to even have breakfast.
03:56And here in this wall is where we integrate all the storage, but also the kitchen.
04:02For example, here we have the table that opens up like this.
04:10And here we have the chairs.
04:14We have two because the Cabanon is thought for a couple.
04:18And we can take the pillows from here and we can have lunch or dinner or you can work.
04:25We also have the storage for the clothes.
04:29We have the shelves or we also have hangers.
04:32The shelves can be moved and stored so we give space for the hangers
04:37because some of us prefer to have the clothes in the shelves
04:41and my mother, for example, likes to hang everything so it doesn't get wrinkled.
04:46And under here we have two big drawers for all the towels.
04:56The materials we chose for the living room.
04:59For the back wall, we wanted to have a tile that gives depth to the space.
05:04So we chose this type of tile.
05:08And here we have the kitchen.
05:10For the back wall, we wanted to have a tile that gives depth to the space.
05:14So we chose these Spanish tiles that create this three-dimensional effect.
05:20For the light, we were actually thinking a lot
05:23because we didn't want to have an element that will take a lot of space.
05:28So what we did is we designed this tube that the carpenter also realized
05:33and it's inspired in this hexagon pattern.
05:36So everything in the space gets its own coherence
05:39in terms of shape and in terms of color.
05:44It's a calm space and we wanted all the furniture as much as possible
05:49to be already integrated in the space so we would not have to buy extra furniture.
05:55There is no clutter, there is no hundreds of objects around.
05:58So everything is really minimal.
06:01So you get this sense of calm where everything is in order.
06:06The bathroom
06:14So we are now in the bathroom.
06:17The bathroom is a space where we have the shower and the toilet.
06:21When we designed this space, we took into consideration two main dimensions.
06:26It's our height for the showering, but also the width that we need
06:30in order to shower comfortably without hitting the elbows with the walls.
06:36We wanted everything, the floor, the ceiling, the walls and the door
06:39in the same material because we want to reinforce all the time
06:42this idea of a very rich spatial experience.
06:47The tiles are blue, initially they were planned in whitish like pearl color
06:52but the carpenter found a very nice offer which cost us a tenth of the price
06:57and we decided to change in order to reduce the budget.
07:02Ventilation
07:05And then also the other challenge was to find a suitable place for the ventilation
07:10and place the drain of the water.
07:14Here we have a rain shower in the ceiling because this is what my partner likes the most
07:19but I prefer a normal shower that we take from here
07:24and then we can put here.
07:27What I like the most about this space is when you are inside and you close the door
07:32you really feel in a space that you don't know where you entered from
07:36because everything is tiled and covered in the same material.
07:40Bathroom
07:56We are now in the spa room.
07:58This was our main objective when we designed the cavernon.
08:02I wanted to have the infrared saunas and my partner wanted to have the whirlpool bathtub.
08:09The dimensions of this space is again made according to our height
08:14so we don't have to bend down when we enter.
08:17The length of the space is given by the length of the bathtub, like a standard bathtub
08:22and then the width actually is given by the mattress which is just on top.
08:28Initially the marble was supposed to be green
08:31but we found out that the software we bought had a leftover black marble
08:36since the 80s that they could not sell because it was a very little surface
08:41so we could get the black marble for the tenth of the price of the green marble.
08:46So when you are inside you really have this enveloping feeling
08:51that you don't know also where you entered
08:54and it feels like a vault, like if you are in a very safe and closed space.
08:59So we really made sure it is comfortable.
09:02Under this seat we have actually the meters for the water and a little storage
09:08and under the other seat of the sauna we have the drawer that opens towards the living room.
09:32We are at the moment in the bedroom.
09:34The bedroom is dimensioned according to the height we need
09:38in order to enter comfortably and to sit down in the bed.
09:43And the width and the length is given by the mattress.
09:46And here on the right we have three cupboards
09:50which fit exactly with the space of the bathroom where the shower was.
09:54This is the main storage of the cabin.
09:58The first cupboard over there opens towards the bedroom and towards the living room
10:03because we always use this cupboard when we have guests and they unpack.
10:07We quickly ask them to put the suitcase on this cupboard so the space gets free of objects.
10:14And the colour of the bedroom is green.
10:17It is the only colour we chose ourselves because initially I would never have chosen a green colour
10:23but as the other rooms, the colours were somehow imposed
10:28by these irresistible offers of materials that we found
10:32green turned to be the different colour from the other three.
10:36The duvet was done by the wife of the carpenter, by Miriam.
10:41This very material is the only thing she found that matches the colour
10:46which was also for us a bit surprising
10:49but at the end, I remember my grandmother having a coat in the same fabric
10:54and we liked it very much.
10:58What we were looking for in this space is sort of creating a nook or a cocoon
11:03that feels nice and cosy.
11:05And what we wanted to do with the lights is, again, the lights will be built in
11:09so there will not be three-dimensional objects appearing.
11:12And I always like these little lights that make a bit like constellations of stars.
11:19We like a lot how this space turned.
11:24It's really, again, one space within a bigger space.
11:28We find it is also very nice that it's open to the living room
11:33because like this you can always see outside or have a view with daylight.
11:38The space feels already quite nice and cosy like this without the need of putting a curtain.
11:49It is very small, but I think we can extrapolate many things
11:54to make better and more affordable houses.
11:58Not in the sense of space, but in the sense of optimising,
12:02like really trying to find the best and the maximum of every space.
12:10Where to position the different elements of the space,
12:13where to put the lights,
12:15where to position the different elements like the door, the radiator,
12:20the electricity plugs, the window, in order to maximise the possibility of storage,
12:25of positions for the furniture and so on.
12:30And sometimes a nine-square-metre room,
12:33where every element is intelligently thought and designed,
12:37feels much bigger than a 15-square-metre room
12:42where the architect didn't take care of the optimisation of the space.
12:47Especially today, where there is a housing crisis almost everywhere,
12:51it's very important to offer people very functional houses.