Hasta La Ideas

Architects Beatriz Ramo and Bernd Upmeyer have designed a 74-square-foot apartment that they will use as a second home. The couple, who hail from Spain and Germany respectively, are based in Rotterdam; the apartment is sited there, in what was previously a storage unit in a residential building.

To make the space livable, the couple pulled out every trick in the book. To orient you, let’s assume the window is the south wall.

This is the view facing northeast:

Behind the model is the apartment’s front door. On the north wall are a series of doors and drawers concealing the kitchen, dining table and closet, as well as the bathroom, to the left.

Above you can see the sleeping space.

This is the view within the bathroom, facing east. Shockingly the bathroom has, next to it, a spa with both a whirlpool tub and a micro-sauna of sorts. )The micro-sauna is not visible in the photos, but is in the video below.) Above the spa you can see pass-through storage units that are accessible from the sleeping space.

The video gives you a look at how the space works:

My big question is if the humidity from the bathroom creates issues. I imagine the ladder that’s stored in the bathroom and used to reach the bed loft, is made out of aluminum.

I appreciate how frank Ramo was, when asked if this is how everyone in the Netherlands should live:

“No, absolutely not. This is a very personal project that we did for ourselves. This is not the solution to the housing crisis.”

Each are the founders of their own architecture firm. Ramo runs Star Strategies + Architecture; Upmeyer runs BOARD (Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design).