Burns Block is an innovative market rental housing project built by Vancouver companies Reliance Properties and ITC Construction Group. Located at the site of the historic Burns Block in the Gastown neighborhood of the Downtown Eastside, the building dates back 100 years and is on the Vancouver Heritage Register. The building features 30 self-contained affordable furnished market rental suites or “micro-lofts.” Suites range from 226 – 291 sq. ft., making them the smallest in Canada. The spatially-efficient design contains built-in, pull-down wall beds with integrated folding tables, flat screen televisions, compact appliances, ample storage and built-in safes for storing valuables. Typical rental value for each suite is $850 per month, including cable and Internet, and starts as low as $760 per month. The building is 18,000 sq. ft and has five floors. The majority of occupants are between the ages of 25 and 35 and include students and those working in the heart of the downtown area.

While the former use of Burns Block was for a Single Room Occupancy hotel (SRO) with shared facilities, suites in the redeveloped building each contain a “wet” bathroom and full kitchen. The building also features a rooftop garden, basement gym, bicycle storage and several environmentally-friendly elements. The Bitter Tasting Room, owned by Heather Hospitality Group, is conveniently located on the ground floor of the building, which also includes 1,421 sq. ft. of future retail space.

The social entrepreneur partnership between Reliance and ITC is an effort to restore the building and to pay tribute to its history. Reliance purchased the building in 2007 after the former SRO was closed by fire officials in 2006. The unprecedented development model was negotiated with Vancouver City Council to provide heritage incentives and vary the minimum apartment size to enhance affordability. ITC joined the project in 2009 to complete the construction work and find cost savings in the complex heritage reconstruction. The project was completed in late August 2011 and all suites were rented and occupied by September 2011.

For more information visit: http://www.microlofts.ca/

When Christian Schallert isn’t cooking, dressing, sleeping or eating, his 258 square foot apartment is an empty cube. To use a piece of furniture, he has to build it.

If Christian wants to sleep, he rolls his bed out from under the balcony, his stairs then become bedside tables and he can even swing a TV out from the wall.

When he is ready to dine, he lowers a plank from the wall, turning his flower-stand into a table support and using his stairs as a bench.

When it is time to cook, he clicks a spot on his vast wall of click-able furniture, and a spring-loaded door swings up to reveal an instant kitchen: double-burner, dishwasher, sink, countertop and microwave oven. The full-sized refrigerator and freezer click open just alongside. You really have to know what is behind door number two.

The apartment is located in Barcelona’s hip Born district, the tiny apartment is a remodeled pigeon loft. Christian (a Barcelona-based photographer) says its design was inspired by the space-saving furniture aboard boats, as well as the clean lines of a small Japanese home.

There is definately more work involved in constructing and deconstructing your dining room/kitchen/bedroom every day or meal (one of his friends has dubbed it “G.I. Joe’s flat”), Christian claims it helps keep him in shape.

In the video, Christian shows his lego-style home and invites a few friends over to cook and lunch with him in his small space.

Today’s video is about Felice Cohen who lives in a 90 square foot microstudio in Manhattan. By choosing a studio that measures just 12 feet by 7 feet, Felice Cohen can afford to live in Manhattan’s Upper West Side where apartments rent for an average of $3,600 per month. She pays just over $700 for her 90-square-foot microstudio.

“I think a lot of people have a lot of space that they’re not using. I grew up in a place where my bedroom was 17 feet by 17 feet with two walk-in closets that combined where almost the size of this apartment that when I go home now I go in the closet just to feel like I’m back in New York.”

Video via faircompanies.com

When Tammy and Logan moved from Sacramento to Portland they downsized to where they were able to load all their belongings into the back of a standard size pickup. That is quite an accomplishment. The neat thing is that they have stuck with a minimalist foot print. Just check out Tammy’s tiny library and the clothes closet.

If you are interested in minimalism which most of us are who follow this blog be sure and read Tammy’s blog Rowdy Kittens and check out her books Smalltopia and Simply Car-free. Thank you Tammy and Logan for sharing your life with us.

Photo Credits: Tammy Strobel

Tammy and Logan plan to eventually build a tiny house on wheels and are planning to have Dee Williams and Katy Anderson from Portland Alternative Dwellings assist them in the construction. I am looking forward to seeing that project started.

Login in the apartment kitchen

Rowdy Kitten relaxing

The Great Room

Tammy's Tiny Library

Logan working in the home office

The Closet

The Bathroom on Laundry day

The Dining Room

The Bedroom

The study concluded that construction of new buildings on scattered narrow infill lots would fit well with the City of Winnipeg’s inventory of vacant lots in residential neighbourhoods.

Each building is two storeys high and has 8 units each with separate entrances, private washrooms, and separate ventilation systems. Each Pocket House features three barrier-free suites and one fully accessible suite on the main floor, with four other suites on the second level accessible by two outside staircases.

Each suite has a built-in cooking area complete with mini-fridge, microwave, sink, hot plate, dishes and cooking utensils. Suites also feature a single bed, a built-in table and a chair. The fully accessible main floor suite has modified doorways and a large roll-in shower for wheelchairs. All of the Pocket Houses meet the Manitoba Hydro requirements for being Power Smart and energy efficient signifying excellence in design and sustainability.

At 210 and 243 square feet these fit into the tiny apartment category.

To learn more visit Pocket Houses.

The article written by The Seattle Times Rebecca Teagarden is titled “Tiny apartment shows the value of a good fit” and talks about Steve Sauer’s 182-square-foot Seattle condo which shows the value of a good fit, from the soaking tub built into the entry floor to the “video lounge” tucked beneath the “cafe area.” Sauer shopped Ikea for many of his home’s furnishings, such as a little table, and used tabletops to fashion cabinet fronts.

Saurer’s says, “What I really wanted was one place with exactly what I needed and wanted. Quality is more important than quantity for me, and extra space only a problem,” he has written, describing his nearby too-big-for-him, one-bedroom condo.

“I wanted to compress my home to squirt me back out to the community,” he says, taking inspiration from dwellings in Scandinavia and Japan, places where space is dear. “That was one of the philosophical reasons. I want to be able to shop daily, not store a lot and eat really well.”

When Sauer couldn’t find the things he needed, he designed them and built them: The stainless-steel shower caddy, towel bar. For other pieces, “Ikea came through again.” Lighting, cabinet pulls, and butcher block for shelves, the table top and cabinet fronts. The rich flooring, Brazilian walnut, was installed by Matt Messenger. A bureau from West Elm fit to 1/8 of an inch, and so it was ordered.

“My dream is to put 300 of these in a building and not have it be a tenement.”

Read the Seattle Times article here.

Read the complete article called But Will It Make You Happy? at the New York Times website and visit Tammy’s website Rowdy Kittens and follow her journey there.

Photo Credit: New York Times

Tammy Strobel and her husband, Logan Smith, in their pared-down, 400-square-foot apartment in Portland, Ore

There is a recent article in Man Overboard about this and here is a brief introduction: In Hong Kong, because of the space, apartments are small and expensive. Gary Chang, an architect, decided to design a 344 sq. ft. apartment to be able to change into 24 different designs, all by just sliding panels and walls. He calls this the “Domestic Transformer.”

Enjoy the video below and read the complete story here.

2 More on Watt Farmhouse

Kelly and Pam have been redeveloping properties since 1998 and are most well known for their 8 on Center project, but their most recent projects are getting some attention for their tiny size, aesthetics and green design. They have won local awards for historic preservation, environmental design and community improvement.

“Just because a place is small does not mean it should be lacking in style, quality and affordability,” Kelly said.

They were kind enough to take me on a tour of their wonderful little projects which are all within a few miles of each other.

2 on Watt

2 on Watt

One of their designs is the 2 on Watt project. These little twin houses stand side by side down a back alley in the Old Southwest part of downtown Reno. They are cottage style, with private back yards and public front porches. Both homes have washer/dryer combos, custom tile, beautiful mahogany floors and an abundance of light.

2 More on Watt Front Cottage

The 2 More on Watt project is down the street and contains two farmhouses from the early 1900s. When Kelly and Pam purchased the property and began to tear down the walls of the smaller farmhouse, the newspapers used for insulation had the date 1915 on them. Some of the newspapers were also in Italian and contained want ads from New York City. Kelly and Pam figured that the houses once belonged to members of a group of Italian immigrants who came to the Reno area during that time.

The smaller farmhouse at the 2 More on Watt location is 160 square feet with a full bath and a studio living and sleeping space. A one piece kitchen unit from A.J. Madison forms the tiny kitchen. The larger house in front is 450 square feet.

HabeRae strives to keep their designs looking like the local aesthetic, but prefer the modern, clean look. They also strive to reuse and recycle everything on their sites including old building materials and rocks and stumps used in landscaping. They even turned a large, discarded satellite dish into a beautiful planter.

SoDo 4

SoDo 4 Interior

SoDo 4 Interior

One of their other designs, the SoDo 4 (SoDo means South of Downtown in Reno-speak) consists of four brick cottages that were once used to house train engineers who worked on the old Virginia & Truckee Railroad that ran through Reno in the early 1900s. The three studios are 276 square feet with a sleeping loft and the one bedroom house in the back is 350 square feet. They are used now as rentals, but with each project HabeRae designs and builds in private outdoor spaces and gardening areas.

Their latest project has been converting a firehouse from 1953 from a run-down homeless shelter into an urban living and working space that is truly redefining this part of downtown Reno. The 11 at the Firehouse has nine studio units that are 350 square feet with a sleeping loft, full bath and kitchen and stackable washer and dryer. They have attempted to keep as much of the original Art Deco structure as possible, and the original tile floors are still being used. The tenants are a professional group ranging from college professors to attorneys. The bottom floor of the 11 at the Firehouse project is filled in with a funky beauty salon and a deli and coffee shop.

Pam told me that they really want to create another living unit from the hose tower of the firehouse. It would be a single unit with stacked rooms and windows looking out onto downtown and the mountains.

11 at the Firehouse Apartment Interior

“Our belief is that small, meaningful, well thought out urban infill can infuse a blighted area with wonderful energy. Small places to live and work on a small footprint leave a small impact on this precious earth.”

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

How to Maximize Space in a Studio Apartment

• Multi-tasking furniture is your best friend: Instead of trying to squeeze a couch, a guest bed, and a linen closet into my apartment, I bought a daybed with a storage space built in under the mattress. I store my sheets, towels, and (oddly) scrap paper in the hidden compartment under the mattress.
• Forego the coffee table and opt for a corner credenza instead: Filling every inch of floor space with furniture is a mistake that studio apartment dwellers often make. Only open floor space feels like, well, open floor space, and it is at a premium in studio apartments. I have a corner credenza that I use creatively. When company comes over, I use the top surface as a buffet. Day-to-day, I use the credenza’s surface area as a staging area for items I need to eventually store or get rid of. Although the credenza is across the room from my “kitchen,” I use its drawers for dry food storage (how hard is it really to walk 8 feet to get a tea bag?), which solves the problem of not having kitchen cabinets.
• Hang as much as you can from the walls, ceilings, and rafters: I am lucky that my studio has exposed metal beams. Instead of taking up valuable floor space with book shelves, I bought cheap wall mounted modular book shelves and hung them from a beam using C-clamps and karabiners. I have a teeny, tiny bathroom with no space for shelving, so I store my bathroom toiletries in a wire mesh basket that I screwed to the bathroom wall.
• When it comes to storage, think outside the box: Is it “normal” that I store my cosmetics in my top “kitchen” drawer? No, but the drawer is the right size and it happens to be adjacent to the bathroom. Creativity is the studio apartment-dweller’s ally.
• Reflect light: Designer Linda Merrill suggests using Lucite and polished wood furniture in order to reflect light throughout a small studio apartment space. Lucite furniture also allows you to see more of the floor beneath it, creating the illusion of more open floor space.

How to Separate Your Bedroom from Your Living Space in a Studio Apartment

• Use furniture to create an alcove: Linda Merrill suggests placing a freestanding bed behind a sofa, so that the back of the sofa creates a boundary between your living area and bed area.
• 4-poster beds with curtains: The bed’s curtains create a natural boundary between the bed and the rest of the room. If you can afford a 4-poster bed, it’s a very efficient way to create a private bedroom in an open floor-plan.
• Alcove spaces make great bedrooms: If you have an alcove space in your studio, placing a mattress on the floor is an efficient option. Even if your mattress extends beyond the alcove, placing shoji screens around it is a way to squeeze the most out of an alcove space.
• Build a loft bed: I am lucky to live in a studio with a built-in loft, which is where I have made my bedroom. I have seen some very clever lofted bed arrangements. Depending on the height of your ceiling, temporary loft bed options include everything from grown-up bunk beds with home office spaces underneath to DIY platform beds with storage below.

The bottom line in studio apartment arrangement is to reduce your clutter, keep decorations to a minimum, buy furniture that works double duty, and be creative.

Guest post by Chaya Goodman is the editor of Networx. To read more home advice like this, check out Networx.