If you are seriously considering building a tiny home, there is a book that you must pick up. New Small Spaces edited by Francesc and published by Collins Design, is simply a gem. This book features forty-one great homes that are all less than 900 square feet. The homes in New Small Spaces are always elegant and are often mind-blowing. You will definitely be inspired to create your own tiny home after you see what some of the worlds best and brightest architects have done with their tiny space concepts.
Some of the spaces featured in the book are homes, while others are apartments. New Small Spaces starts out with the tiniest of small homes and works its way up. One of the outstanding smaller homes is the Shouldham Street Extension from Henning Stummel Architects in London. This tiny home may only be 161 feet, but it packs a lot of wow into that 161 number. The exterior of this tiny home is a lap wood ship siding that has been panted in various shades of gray with random Plexiglas strips placed throughout. The interior is just as creative, as the Shouldham Street Extension has walls that are gloss white. Perhaps most impressive of all is the way the interior and exterior interact to produce some very well framed shots that any photographer would love.
Ever so slightly bigger at 205 square feet, comes the Boxhome from Norway. The Boxhome was designed by architect Sami Rintala in 2007 and can be found (looking like some transplant from the future), in Oslo. This four room tiny home was designed with an eye towards energy efficiency, as well as creating a relaxing space. The outside of the Boxhome more closely resembles a work of modern art than it does a home. The polished metal exterior is broken up a highly asymmetrical plus sign shaped window pattern. The end result is just breathtaking.
Anyone seriously contemplating building their own tiny home, should really take a look at New Small Spaces. The Boxhome and Shouldham Street Extension are just two of the forty-one homes featured in the book. Most homes in the book are larger, and some homes are as large as 900 square feet.
New Small Spaces, quietly and elegantly, makes the point that brilliant design and innovative material usage can produce some truly amazing homes that can feel much more spacious and luxurious than their number of square feet would dictate.