Big (great) archi­tecture in a small space

The various blogs and maga­zines are full of reports about Tiny Houses, living in small spaces and micro apart­ments. There is talk of fle­xible spatial con­cepts, spatial unity, optimal use of space and clever fix­tures. Mostly it’s about newly gained living space on a few square metres – but some­times you wonder about the kind of palaces that pass for “Tiny Houses”.

The range is enormous: They come in all varieties and shapes, with flat roofs or round window ope­nings, in cottage or Scan­di­navian style, made of wood or con­crete, with wheels or without, self-built or pro­fes­sio­nally planned. In coope­ration with a car­pen­ter’s workshop, Tchibo already had fully equipped mini houses in its range, and some manu­fac­turers cooperate with renowned archi­tec­tural firms. In any case, the large number of impressive houses shows that sophisti­cated archi­tecture can also rea­lised in a minimal space. For many archi­tects, the small dwel­lings seem to offer a kind of play­ground where they can test their skills. It all sounds won­derful: little space required, ever­y­thing well thought out and usually built sus­tainably, extra­or­dinary design – what more could you want. But can you really live in these mini houses, per­ma­nently or at least for a holiday?

The Tiny House movement ori­gi­nated in the USA – as a social movement for living in the smallest of living spaces. At the end of the nineties, the architect Sarah Susanka with her book “The Not So Big House” and shortly after­wards the Cali­fornian designer Jay Shafer with his mobile miniature house made a statement against the over­sized US houses – and with these showed that it is pos­sible to live a carefree life in the truest sense of the word even in little living space. In Germany, Peter Lustig from the child­ren’s pro­gramme Löwenzahn (Dan­delion) is seen – quite non-poli­ti­cally – as the pioneer of this trend with his con­verted con­s­truction trailer. In the meantime, the movement has become inter­na­tional: In cities like Tokyo or even London, where land is incre­dibly expensive, archi­tects are con­stantly looking for and finding struc­tural gaps that they can fill with micro houses. Without having defined an exact size, one usually assumes around 45 square metres of living space for Tiny Houses – alt­hough that is already a lot if one thinks of the ten-square-metre house with which the architect Van Bo Le-Mentzel in Berlin offers inspi­ration for a deli­berately reduced life. Or not much when you con­sider the multi-storey “Tiny Houses” pre­sented in the archi­tec­tural scene – which, no question, are very unusual and also designed to save space, but are in fact not “tiny”.

Today, however, the term “Tiny House” is incre­asingly asso­ciated with a con­sciously chosen life­style (or attitude to life). The focus is on the reflection of the essential, which should lead to more self-satis­faction. This trend, also known as “post­modern mini­malism”, includes con­sciously giving up con­sumption, as well as mindful inter­action with the envi­ronment. When finishing the houses, great importance is attached to the use of high-quality and natural mate­rials, and the per­fectly thought-out interior should offer as much living comfort as pos­sible. In a small space, many do not want to (and cannot) save on fur­nis­hings, which, after all, cannot be con­stantly replaced due to the space–saving fix­tures. This in turn entails a greater awa­reness of the value of things, according to the motto: small but of high quality.

As with every trend, there are of course cri­tical voices about the topic of Tiny Houses. These range from the objection that today’s life­style movement ignores the social grie­vances from which it ori­gi­nally arose, to the accu­sation that the mini houses are not a measure to combat these grie­vances, but rather a kind of sur­render to them. Moreover, a “reduction to the essential” in the sense of a more con­tented attitude to life is of course only pos­sible if one pre­viously owned a lot, i.e., had more at one’s dis­posal anyway than the minimum that has to suffice for many people.
Regardless of this cri­ticism, a “normal” everyday life is cer­tainly pos­sible in the small houses for a single person or perhaps even two – apart from space, there is nothing lacking. This is cer­tainly indi­cated by all the reports in life­style maga­zines of families who have chosen such a life for them­selves – mostly with (still) small children. So, it seems to work, even as a family. And of course, there are not only the extremes – rather, the trend towards reduced and sus­tainable living can also be lived on dif­ferent scales: It can also be understood as an encou­ra­gement to live not quite so “big”, not quite so much con­sumption and more awa­reness in dealing with the things that sur­round you.

Holidays offer a good oppor­tunity to downsize, at least tem­po­r­arily, or to try out other forms of living. Apart from camping (or: glamping), this also includes staying in a Tiny House. Often the little houses are situated in beau­tiful nature – “off-grid”, another trend that many are looking for as a con­trast to their bustling everyday lives. Many of the tiny holiday homes offer maximum comfort and impressive design in the smallest of spaces.

Even if living per­ma­nently on a very small scale is not ever­yone’s cup of tea: An occa­sional rethink of one’s own way of life is cer­tainly never wrong. Perhaps some aspects of the Tiny House trend can be imple­mented – for example, by getting rid of super­fluous items and thus gaining a certain lightness, or by carefully con­sidering whether each new purchase has a long-term value. If sus­tainable living is com­bined with good design and appe­aling archi­tecture, I think that’s all the better. By the way, “small living” can also be prac­tised through the use of fle­xible pieces of fur­niture, for example, because you incre­asingly work in a home office and would like to simply “fold away” your work­place in the evening. That seems to be hap­pening these days.

Text: Tina Barankay, Sep­tember 2021

About the author: Tina Barankay has been com­bining her passion for aes­thetics and design with her pro­fes­sional acti­vities for many years, among others as an editor for the archi­tecture magazine DETAIL. As a free­lance jour­nalist and con­sultant, she publishes articles, pro­duces publi­ca­tions and designs com­mu­ni­cation con­cepts in the fields of archi­tecture, interior design and design.