COLLECTION OF SKETCHES AND MODELSBOOK 2 OF 3STUDIES OF MICRO LIVING

FIRST CONCEPTSThe first ideas on small living or micro living that I had was connected to the minimum of apartment that was earlier discussed in Norway. In addi-tion to this, I tried to also take in consideration my personal living experi-ences as student.

I have lived in flatshares, housing complexes for students, camping wagons and in my own, owned apartment. Below are the examples from a 36 sq. m. rented basement apartment and a 12 sq. m. room in the housing complex for students from the 1950s.

I also tried to put down the first or primary needs when living in a minimal housing unit. This is what I felt important - but it should of course be connected to an active everyday life as an actor in a neighbourhood.

Its clear that when the size of the housing unit decreases - the need for social or public structure outside the housing unit increases. I also thought that the micro living houses should be modular - but later I deviated from this, aiming more for place-specific housing unit.

The specific need I would highlight is that the housing unit should have a proper size, be adapted for focus and studying activities, adapt for certain privacy and design for a maximum of daylight. Storage for different stuff is also important - there will always be a certain need for storing stuff close to the everyday life.

WHERE AND HOW TO DENSIFYAfter meeting with persons of all ages and situations in the streets at study site in Ganddal and also met them at home - I had some clear limits and openings.

It was clear to me that I had to devise a way of putting extra households into the area without damaging the local structure and local qualities.

GOOD LIVING UNITSAfter settling on a modular approach - I also went into the understanding of how to develop a proper apartment. I tried to keep it rectangular so that multiplying it would be easy. I did studies in model and sketch in the scales between 1:20, 1:50, 1:100 and 1:200.

DETAILING LIVING UNITSWhen going into the scales 1:100, 1:50 and 1:20 I was intrigued by the idea of storage in the floor, storage in the walls and the certain mechanics and cabinetry to make this work.

In addition to storage - I was also interested in the social dimension or the furnishing of the apartment/living spaces. I know that there is a certain width required for social seating around a dining table, get-ting around comfortably in a bathroom and other di-mensions. A combined thought for storage and social arranging was the stepped surroundings. I thought that the steps could be used for storage and dividing the small apartment into different zones of usage.

USING THE GARAGESI early on had the notion of the urban or dense being a space or situation where one floor could be programmed with more than one use. I believe this is the same for garages in suburbia developed into a more dense situation.

The specific motives for densification could be in the family or household, like “granny flats” or “teenage cave”. But most households are also motivated by the possibility of earning some extra rental income.

DEVELOPING GARAGES

AIMING WITH 3 CONCEPTSAfter playing around with how to expand and build-on-top-of an existing garage, I developed an idea connected to how to place the extra apartment. I thought there would be about 3 ways of putting apartments in at the site. The flat site could facilitate a triple unit that I called “Triple 20”, the sites where there was a terrain slope I could use “Tall 9” and the general thought of rectangle with wetbox developed into what I call “Module with wetbox”.

Here are some sketches in the early iteration of these 3 lightly place-specific concepts.

USING SLOPES - TALL 9The 1st of the 3 placement-concepts was utilizing the slopes on some of the properties. In the study area, some properties are pretty flat, but a few have a certain slope that is difficult to utilize as garden or building lot.

I also rejected the standard notion of basement living was dark. The tubular skylights works for me as a tool to counter the dark rooms that a basement offers. Combined with a semi-public grass roof or small floors multiplied 3-4 times, a sloped property could also be utilized well.

DEVELOPING SLOPESWhile developing the concept of slopes, I watched a documentary featuring narrow houses. Particularly, a solution in Antwerp intrigued me.

After this, I made a model and some sketches with this narrow building in-my-mind, taking it to suburbian South-Western Norway. I named this try-upt “Tall 9” because 9 metres above ground level is the normal maximum height restriction in these kind of surroundings.

USING HEIGHT - TRIPLE20Perhaps height could be used somewhat more gentle? After the try-outs of the “Tall 9” I thought about height differences of about half a metre - such as you could sit on.

Again, after watching a documentary - I was intrigued by a small apartment that was divided in 3. The 3 parts was about 20 sq.meters and one of them included a common dining room for the 2 other ones containing sleeping room and bathroom.

DEVELOPING THE BOXAfter playing around with how to expand and build-on-top-of an existing garahe, I developed an idea connected to how to place the extra apartment. I thought there would be about 3 ways of putting apartments in at the site. The flat site could facilitate a triple unit that I called “Triple 20”, the sites where there was a terrain slope I could use “Tall 9” and the general thought of rectangle with wetbox developed into what I call “Module with wetbox”.

Here are some sketches in the early iteration of these 3 lightly place-specific concepts.

After playing around with how to expand and build-on-top-of an existing garahe, I developed an idea connected to how to place the extra apartment. I thought there would be about 3 ways of putting apartments in at the site. The flat site could facilitate a triple unit that I called “Triple 20”, the sites where there was a terrain slope I could use “Tall 9” and the general thought of rectangle with wetbox developed into what I call “Module with wetbox”.

Here are some sketches in the early iteration of these 3 lightly place-specific concepts.

After playing around with how to expand and build-on-top-of an existing garage, I developed an idea connected to how to place the extra apartment. I thought there would be about 3 ways of putting apartments in at the site. The flat site could facilitate a triple unit that I called “Triple 20”, the sites where there was a terrain slope I could use “Tall 9” and the general thought of rectangle with wetbox developed into what I call “Module with wetbox”.

Here are some sketches in the early iteration of these 3 lightly place-specific concepts.

After playing around with how to expand and build-on-top-of an existing garahe, I developed an idea connected to how to place the extra apartment. I thought there would be about 3 ways of putting apartments in at the site. The flat site could facilitate a triple unit that I called “Triple 20”, the sites where there was a terrain slope I could use “Tall 9” and the general thought of rectangle with wetbox developed into what I call “Module with wetbox”.

Here are some sketches in the early iteration of these 3 lightly place-specific concepts.