Hasta La Ideas

A small wooden shed constructed from stacks of timber planks in a Bavarian field forms a home for German architect Michael Kühnlein’s herd of goats (+ slideshow).

Kühnlein – who runs local studio Kühnlein Architektur with Michael Kühnlein Senior – placed the small, flat-roofed shed beside a grove of trees near the miniature goats’ grazing pastures in Upper Palatinate, a region in eastern Bavaria.

Taking the traditional wooden houses of the local region as a starting point, the architect set about designing a shed built entirely from timber. With the help of a friend, he constructed the shed by stacking narrow planks of spruce wood and using only nails to join the timber walls, floors and roof.

“The wooden cube, reduced to the necessaries, should be a positive example for agricultural buildings, integrating the free landscape around it,” said Kühnlein.

“Calculations and expensive materials are needed for the execution of any elaborate plans,” said the architect, who instead selected planks of spruce as a cheaper alternative to prefabricated sheds. “It is an attractive and economical alternative to manufactured garden sheds as they are available in hardware stores.”

The walls are interlocked by alternating long and short lengths of pale spruce timber. This overlapping formation produces a pattern from the smooth lengths and sawn ends that run vertically down each corner of the shed.

Slender horizontal openings produce a grill along the front of the structure that provides ventilation and daylight for the goats.

The shed is raised on chunky timber legs over the uneven ground to provide a flat floor for the animals. The floor platform is made from vertically laid planks, in keeping with the design of the walls.

A small doorway set into the highest part of the facade provides a goat-scale entrance that takes advantage of the animals’ natural agility, while a full-height door hinges from the rear corner of the structure to provide an opening that allows humans to enter and clean out the shed.

Inside, the shed is divided in two by a slatted partition wall that allows animals and feed to be separated.

The project was the winner of the Bavarian timber award Holzbaupreis Bayern 2014, an annual competition sponsored by the Bavarian State Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry for energy-efficient and cost-effective wooden architecture.

Photography is by Erich Spahn.

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As microapartments and tiny houses continue to trend, we’ve seen all manner of
beds that fold out and furniture that transforms into something else. But one
area we’ve seen that hasn’t received much design attention is the kitchen
sink—arguably one of the more important elements, at least for the
micro-dweller who cooks.

As countertops get smaller, space for preparing food comes at a premium, and
designers are faced with an unpleasant choice: Go large on the sink and provide
less counterspace, or go small on the sink and provide less room for washing
up.

Blanco, Germany’s largest manufacturer of sinks, reckons the customer can have it both
ways with their Blanco Ronis Single Bowl sink. The designers made the
intelligent observation that a single cook can either wash produce or cut it
up, but not both at the same time; thus it makes sense to utilize the space the
sink occupies for both tasks. Check it out:

I’d actually like to see that rotating holder kitted out with four bowls rather
than two, as when cooking (I recently got into Blue Apron), I find I’m always
cutting up at least four items before I even get to the meat. I’d also like to
see the sink a bit deeper—it’s just over 6.5 inches deep—but the diameter
seems decent at roughly 20 inches.

Unsurprisingly, the extra utility of the sink doesn’t come cheap–‘Stateside at least, this bad boy will set you back US $1,400. 

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