Here at Boing Boing, we do love tiny houses! Hus-1 is a small house designed and built by Swedish micro-home designer Torsten Ottesjö.
The project is a few years old, and making the internet rounds anew this week as many of us think about the lives we want to live in this new year, and the changes we may wish to make in our surroundings.
Images from the designer's website, and his description of the project and the process follow.
"The building was constructed on site. The idea is a dwelling as personification. The dwelling features convex walls which seam together with the floor creating both a sense of airiness and a naturally curved seating space along the sides of the interior. The structure is free-standing, so it can be moved anywhere; though the feeling is that it has actually sprouted out of the ground it rests on."
"The 25 sqm house aims to provide a living space beyond understanding. It is supposed to fit, to enable – not to distract or cause attention. Hus 1 regularly houses two people all year round but visiting friends always have room. Kitchen, sleeping quarters, dinner table, hallway and other functions are well integrated on just 25 square metres of living space."
"Buildings are often seen as rigid and ugly, while untouched Nature is considered as being undoubtedly beautiful. Trying to reproduce Nature may be seen as ugly, but never the original in itself. The untamed Nature is a source of incessant beauty. Why is this? Is it because the beauty of Nature lies in its complexities and its eternal variety? Our mind is simply stimulated by our insufficiency in facing its details. We are intrigued and inspired by that which we cannot understand or even grasp."
"Just like the numerous forms of the branches of a tree, humans love Nature in a variety of ways. Is it possible to build a house which can be loved by so many in countless different ways? I wanted to try to build a house which was seen as beautiful in the same complex way as Nature. Angles and flat levels are at odds with the creation of Nature, but what are the alternatives? How do you build something that feels unconstructed? How can you imitate Nature in the form of a house?"
"By using doubled-curved surfaces and complex forms, I wanted to adapt the house to Nature's infinite variety of form."
"I wanted the house to be difficult to overlook, no matter what the angle or the shape. Whether we look at it from either the outside or the inside, a lot is still left open. I believe we grow wiser if we are not given all the answers directly. Instead we get used to the fact that we cannot know everything. We learn to make decisions in relation to our surroundings and the square block-shaped architecture that surrounds us encourages a simplistic logic. It is not a suitable environment for humans."
"Few people have a larger volume than 0,1 m3 but many live in a home larger than 100 m3. This depends on our need for space in order to move around freely. We need to focus our eyes on different distances. We enjoy space. However, don't we often have too much? What is it that makes a room spacious? Is it necessarily its size in cubic metres?"
"It is more common to hear a person express love for a car than for a house. I believe it has to do with scale. It is easier to feel the connection with a car since its volume resembles our own. On that basis I think it should be possible to build a house that is actually quite small but which feels large and spacious. I wanted to adapt the size of the house to suit the movements of the body and to make it completely comfortable to be in. Wherever a person comes in contact with the building it should be tailored for the form and the mechanics of the human body."
"Except for our own volume, we surround ourselves with furniture. Why all these objects? In practical terms, we need extremely few things to survive, but we may feel happier surrounded by beautiful things. Apart from the vital things we need, we want beauty, stimulus and comfort in order to function and enjoy ourselves."
[via goodshomedesign.com]
