Hasta La Ideas

Of all the takes we’ve seen on the transforming micro-apartment, this has got to be the strangest. While I wouldn’t want to live there—and indeed, the space is only designed to be used “a couple of weekends per month”—I’m drawing it to your attention for its highly unusual approach. Virtually every space-saving apartment has the furniture built into the walls and the center of the room free. This 290-square-foot Barcelona Casa en una Maleta (“House in a Suitcase”) takes the opposite approach, placing absolutely nothing against the walls, and instead filling the center of the room with two constructions that can only be described as a cross between a suitcase and furniture.

Like you, mid-way through the video I wondered about the visible screw-heads and exposed plywood edges—is this place real, or just a concept?—but architect Eva Prats explained it away when she pointed out that the budget was of paramount importance.

What do you think—would a less Spartan take on a center-of-the-room-based design have legs? Do you think people stick with built-ins-against-walls out of rote habit, or because it’s the “correct” solution, from an efficiency standpoint?

(more…)