3 SMALL MINIMAL APARTMENTDOC 234—34/2
PROJ 03
PROJECTS II.
2024
Designing an apartment in an existing space. Objectives are to be able to fit everything into a small area while respecting the Housing Decret of Catalunya. The requirements for the apartment was that it has to fit two people.
USERS:
MIA, 28
Mia is an artist who lives in Sabadell and is 28 years old. Her artworks are mainly paintings, sometimes sculptures, abstract art and modern art. She has also become interested in photography and wants to start experimenting with that subject. She is often up all night working on a piece of art. She used to live with her boyfriend, who is a musician, but they broke up 2 months ago and she moved away. She is looking for a place to live now, she wants a quiet home that feels good to come home to. She wants to live with someone she can be friends with and share interests with. She really likes going to Barcelona because she likes the city life, but is happy to return to Sabadell, where everything is quiet. She has very good style, buying most of her clothes from her fashion designer friends and second-hand stores. Mia doesn't cook much, only when she invites her friends over and they do something together. She smokes a lot, so she needs a patio to go out and smoke. She is a minimalist, she doesn't like having too much of anything, she believes that “less is more.”
ELIZABETH, 45
Elizabeth is a 45-year-old woman, divorced for 3 years. She has a 22-year-old daughter. She went through a bad divorce and decided to return to Sabadell where she studied when he was young. She spends a lot of time alone and that doesn't make her feel good. She decided to share an apartment instead of living alone. She is quite tall and normally very athletic, but has been struggling to maintain her healthy lifestyle. She wants to change that and that's why she wants to surround herself with like-minded people. She is a modern art teacher. She has a collection of books that she likes to have on a shelf where she can see them. She loves reading and visiting art exhibitions. She likes to live in minimalist spaces, but she loves to buy small things wherever he travels. She is a very organized person and needs space for all her things. She wants to cook more and learn new recipes. She likes people but he also needs her privacy. She has a lot of clothes that she is trying to sell and she just wants to keep clothes simple and useful.
The idea was to design this apartment in a way that would create space for both of these users so their needs would be adressed in the space and they wouldn´t be bothered by each other in their private space.
This is a sketch of the existing space, top view and section.
We researched the housing decret of Catalunya and applied it to the existing space while trying to come up with a functional floor plan. We kept adjusting it until it had perfect flow and did not feel crowded.
The floor plan and sections above give a rough idea of the space. We can clearly see the different spaces and how they interact with each other and also the flow of the furniture. A big focus point are the built in wardrobes that go along the walls in the bedrooms and entrance area - to keep the space tidy since it´s small and also to have sufficient storage without the space feeling crowded.
After being more or less done with the plan, I gave it volume and built the 3D. This is a preliminary render without materials, so I had room to change things if they didn´t look as I envisioned them.
After finishing the floor plan, we gave it 3D dimensions so we could see the space better. It gave us an idea of how the flow would work.
The style and material moodboard was a bit of a midcentury modern style but more minimal. The focus was on wood and rattan finishes, greenery and a staple bronze piece in the kitchen instead of normal kitchen shelves. The moodboard itself has pieces of many styles, but the point was to pick specific things and apply them to my concept for the small apartment.
After the meticulous process of picking out the materials that would suit the best, I made my final renders. The main and biggest space is the kitchen/living room, that provides ample space for cooking but also hosting as it can seat around 6-8 people. It´s also an open concept to keep it airy and fit for easy access. The big sliding windows provide a vie, which makes you feel a bit like you have a garden outside. The bedrooms are very minimal, only having necessary things like storage, work space and a bed, but also not boring because of the materials used. The bathroom is set in between the shared space and private space, which made the most sense. It also creates a bit of a separation, so if one of the occupants is hosting, the noise dissipates throughout the space and doesn´t travel as far to bother the other person.
We can see the flow of the apartment in these sections. It gives us a better idea of the proportions as well.