how did everyone feel they went today in the review?

Student village atTechnical University Munich

This is a village of mobile minimal dwellings each with dimensions of 2.6 cubic metres with same functioning spaces as ours. Quite cute. Cubes seem to be the way to go when designing minima in terms of practical considerations. These for instance can be delivered by trailer and plonked where ever.

This is a pretty interesting idea:

A Yale student designed this space where all components Hinged, slide or stacked etc...

Cardboard

It might not have suited our site, but cardboard is the way of the future. Check out the Houses of the Future web site for more green mini houses.

Daniel Calder is online.

RUCKSACK HOUSE

I found this brilliant "minima" in a book called 'Minimal Spaces, Maximum Living' - Its called the Rucksack House designed by Stefan Eberstadt. Its a 2.5X2.5 plywood box hung by steel cables off the face of a high rise building in Leipzig . The only furniture is a low plywood platform bed and a teeny weeny plywood table. Pretty cool, but you would want to trust those cables!

This is the work in progress, I've got the stacking system to work, with the ability of human hands. I've managed to have the stack go from a cube to a net, into the

Cube and retrace its tracks!!! Now for the presentation...thanks guys.

Ciao Ciao

Minima idea No 2

Here is the idea I am currently working on. Any comments/ suggestions very welcome.

Hmmm...I think I need a rethink

Have posted some drawings of my original design. However I have decided to completely change track. Can't get excited about this one. Decided instead to jump out of 'create a nice little spot' mode and more into 'minimal' mode.
Switched from reading books on small houses to reading books on transportable/minimal shelters.
Couple of good books for anyone interested:
'Move House' Sean topham (Melb Uni library
'Transportable Environments' Robert Kronenburg (ed)
(Deakin library).
I really enjoyed reading about spaces designed with homelessness, emergency shelter, modern transient lifestyle in mind.
For example, someone has designed a zip up suit for transient/displaced people. The suits have lots of pockets for food and water and medicine. Once a group of people get where they want to stay for the night, they climb out of their suits, zip them together and make a tent for the night (albeit a tent with hoods and pockets hanging off it). Next morning they dismantle the tent, climb back into their individual suits and get on with the day.

This is the position I'm in, how on earth do I get this cube into the stack that I want it to get into!!!

Minima

Any suggestions for the material for my yellow "coffin". I found a new product called Valchromat which is an MDF that is available in bright colours and coloured through the whole thickness . It is UV resistant and moisture resistant, which caught my eye, but I suspect not good for exposed conditions such as a jetty except for the short term (but maybe thats ok because its demountable.) Any other materials? Would yellow moulded plastic be an option?

here they come...

just a couple of photos to help with the design.....feel free to use.

I still think MYSpacve is a better IDEA!!!

He's a busy guy. On the throne... with a show and a visitor

minimal Take 2

Here's the next stage of my development (although i'm afraid it'll look a little clunky after anthony's). I've been trying to continue with the furniture shaping the space idea so i've knocked a few blocks out of walls for shelve's/bed/etc. i'm struggling with the overally form still too, and i've been thinking of going back to more of an axtec style flat topped pyramid... but we'll see. I like the idea of the function of each bit being obvious from outside. Shading and plumbing and construction are still not finalised.

Minima design ideas

Here is my design so far... ready for a crit. The first pic was what I had this morning and the followong two show the changes. The concept is modular components that can be added or subtracted, and rearranged, according to user needs. It is supported by a timber frame (which is not modular) within which the building's components can be arranged. The idea was to provide versatility and adaptability to different sites/conditions.
The basic unit is 900 x 900mm modules with floor/waste being 590mm deep, walls at 1800mm tall and roof (which houses solar heated water) is 140mm deep. The door (above the step) faces North east (on the end of the pier). The screens are movable and lockable to deal with privacy and weather issues.
I won't go on now but please offer suggestions as they would be really appreciated.
Thanks

Screening

I'm not sure if you guys are interested in screening options for your minimal hut but thought I'd put some info here anyway in case you are. I have been researching screening as I think the problem with our site is that while it has a beautiful view and position near the water, it is very exposed to the elements.

I think there are quite a few architects using screens these days. Here are the ones I have been looking at:
Timber screens: Carmen Pinos (couldn't actually find her on the web but she must be there somewhere. Have seen her stuff in books) Also have looked at the screens on the west face of the CH2 building in Melbourne (as described by the bloke who gave the lecture at the a+b opening night last week. I think his name is Mike Pearson.
Metal Screens: I really like the ones Sean Godsell put on a couple of his houses - Kew House and Peninsula House.(www.seangodsell.com)
Plastic Screens: There is a totally gorgeous building that I saw in Architectural Review No 11, 2006(journal in the library). It is the Badajoz Congress Centre in a town in Spain. The building is located on the site of an old bull fighting ring. The architect wanted to remember this history in designing the building so it is circular like a bull fighting ring. The centre core of the ring is made of polycarbonate and glows at night. It is surrounded by a large walkway with is separated from the outside by a huge swirling screen. The screen needed to spin around the edge of the circle so needed to be of a flexible material. It is made out of 'fibreglass reinforced polyester resin tubes'. They had to find low cost materials for the project because it is located in quite a poor part of Spain. The glowing centre cylinder can be seen through the plastic screen. It looks great.

See you all on Friday.

Minimal Development

Thought I'd get the ball rolling with the Minima development input. Here are a couple of pictures from a sketchup model I've been mucking around with. It's at an early stage in terms of refinement and demountability but my basic idea was to start with the furniture and then work out from there. I'm going to look into making it smaller and more of a fold-out type thing, but I'm still struggling in my mind about how to interpret minimal space and what level of comfort to accommodate. I do like the idea of having the bed as a seperate and permanent part of the space (as in the loft idea here) although if it doubled as a bench for the desk the space could be smaller. The glass wall won't stay - it's just so you coul see inside (I should have just left it off). Any thoughts?

Radio Program on Small Spaces

Hey everyone,
There was an interesting program on small spaces on the Radio National 'By Design' program on Saturday 10th March. www.abc.net.au/rn/bydesign. Also last week there was something on innovative communal retirement living which may have some interesting info for the next project.

Brent's Minimal Posters

minimal

My minimal enclosures for working and sleeping suggest 'enclosure' as simply defining a personal space as opposed to 'enclosure' as a physical barrier to the world beyond the walls of concrete blocks and sheets of ply. Each design, depending on where it is sited in the atrium, offers a different interpretation of this personal space. The 'cubby house' for example suggests secret places whereas the 'framed view' on the main entry level invites you to enter.

The strange lines through these posters are only on the pdf copies. Something to do with my scanning abilities no doubt!

minimal

A bit of a rush job. Time management might have helped...
The basis of my first 2 ideas is privacy, or at least implied privacy - a wall, and the occupants position within the space. Perforations in the wall are a result of the 130 brick limit. The layout of 'internal' space was determined by two things. Firstly, the privicay from direct lines of sight as people pass by. I felt that that line of sight was an essential difference between protected and exposed. The second consideration was that the user would occupy a comanding position within the space.
THe third idea was really just exploring the idea of a doorway to delineate interior space. It incorporates the 'garden' (which is a fixed piece of art in the atrium -iron and concrte?) both as a screen and a view.