Small Spaces

The kitchen cabinetry echoes the new blue ceiling. The brick tile is from Heath Ceramics, as is the dinnerware. Behind the Viking stove is powder-coated corrugated metal (“Very trailer,” says the designer). The refrigerator is from Big Chill. On the table is a bowl by Victoria Morris.

A small space for laundry.

The plan allows for a full length tub in the bathroom – usually a luxury in a studio apartment. Micro-unit LaunchPad. Clei s.r.l/Resource Furniture; Designed by Pierluigi Colombo and architecture by Amie Gross Architects. Photography by John Halpern. Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York

The Box Kitchen contains two burners, a ventilation hood, a sink, a dishwasher, and a microwave. A fold-down laminated countertop creates a prep surface.

The modest entry to the cottage opens up to steeply angled ceilings for dramatic spatial effect.

Inspired by the small scale of Japanese residences—in particular, Makoto Masuzawa’s 1952 Minimum House—architect Andrew Simpson designed his own economical 538-square-foot home set into a wooded site in Island Bay, a coastal suburb outside Wellington, New Zealand.

Using natural materials is one way of bringing nature indoors. Oiled white ash floors and ceilings, along with Italian poplar and Lawson cypress joinery, are found throughout architect Andrew Simpson’s 538-square-foot home outside Wellington, New Zealand.

The home also extends into outdoor panoramas, even—and especially—from the ground floor, where a westward-facing deck cantilevers out into the lush landscape.

“There’s that iteration you go through, trying to both maximize space and the feeling of space,so that it doesn’t feel cramped.”—Andrew Simpson