When Swedish architect Karin Matz discovered a small space in Stockholm, which for over 30 years had been used for furniture storage, she was instantly inspired to transform it into a multi-purpose tiny home. The 36 sq m (387 sq ft) space had not been touched since the 1980s when its owner started initial renovations before falling ill. Three decades later, Matz has breathed new life into the apartment, successfully converting it into a light-filled compact home and finally finishing what the previous owner had started.
"I found it fascinating that this apartment had been in this state for 30 years," Karin Matz tells Gizmag. "Time had been frozen; wallpaper was half removed, only a few tiles and a kitchen faucet were sticking out of the wall, there was no electricity and the bathroom only had signs of rats as inhabitants. In a city like Stockholm with an enormous housing shortage and with every square meter increasing in price by the minute, this project was somehow impossible to resist."
It took Matz a little under six months to complete construction of the HB6B home. The interior has been divided into two parts, featuring an open space living area and kitchen/bed/wardrobe zone made from a single structure. Some of the walls have been left bare as a reminder of the apartment's past.
Using pine-plywood Matz based the design of the kitchen and bed area on an IKEA unit. Glass panels are used to separate the kitchen/bed/wardrobe spaces from each other and roller curtains have been fitted to the ceiling, allowing the kitchen and/or the sleeping quarters to be closed off from the living area. The bathroom sits adjacent to the living room and shares an internal window, which also has a curtain for privacy. The bathroom floor and the kitchen table were made using pigmented plywood.
"It was very difficult to fit everything into the small space," says Matz. "It took a lot of different tests but I really enjoyed puzzling everything together in a smart space-saving way. It was a big challenge to fit things into a space which is actually too small to fit everything into it. It was also difficult to find a rail which was strong enough to hold all of the clothes."
The total cost to complete the HB6B home was approximately €27,000 (US$36,855).
Source: Karin Matz via Web Urbanist
