lofted beds

After looking at this video, I realized that there may be also be space in the ceiling. Which brought me to think about stuff like those pillar - like things in the corner of the rooms and double ceilings. Typically, they were constructed to hide things like pipes or wires to make the place cleaner and neater. But when you live in a studio apartment, you need as much space as you can get right? whether if its on the same ground as you or above you. So I then thought about what if the ceiling were a little higher? Like the fake ceiling is not there? Then you can have things like a lofted bed where you can have space to put furniture in like a desk to do your work and whatnot. It shows that you can actually make use of any space, whether if its right next to you or above you, and that can conserve space.

            

This is what a lofted bed looks like if you don't understand what I mean.

Then again I don't think most apartments, studio or not have double ceilings so I don't think this info is really useful. But that doesn't mean one can't place a lofted bed. Just that you need to mind your head.

3 main ideas

Out of the 101 ideas, my group and I agreed on the 3 main ideas that we would use for our designs. They were multi-functional chair, murphy bed and twisted table. And as we chose those ideas, we also thought of pros and cons to them.

For the multifunctional chair, the good thing is that it doesn't take so much space, and it has more functions compared to that of a normal chair. It can fulfill the requirements of other furniture so you don't need to buy another furniture that has the same usage. The only drawback is that it could be more expensive compared to a standard furniture. Obviously because since it can do other things than being just a chair, more materials are required to make them, the could be of higher quality and durability so that adds to the price of buying such a thing. Plus depending on how it's design it can only fulfill certain needs. It can't morph into everything. So to tackle on to those drawbacks, we can manufacture them using recycled materials so it can be strong and no too costly. As for the design, we have to make so that it fulfill more needs than just one or two of them.

For the Murphy bed, it's multipurposeful so it's not just a bed, so it can morph to cater other needs as well. The bed can be kept away so it doesn't take up your space so it's really helpful when you need space. Plus, I read from the Internet that it's possibly cheaper than a regular bed, so it helps to save money. The only problem is that it can be tiresome to constantly take out the bed and keep it back whenever not in use. The only to solve it is to either designed it so that it is automated or to make it a habit. It can be good for exercise.

lastly for the twisted table, it pros are about the same as the multifunctional chair; it's multipurpose and it helps to conserve space. On another note, it can only serve certain requirements so like the multifunctional chair, we need design it so that it can serve many purposes and not just one or two. 

So from those we planned on making a designing a furniture that consists of those 3 ideas and help to tackle those drawbacks that we had just mentioned.

101 Ideas

After some research, it has come to a conclusion that the main problem of studio apartments is that there is not enough storage. Considering that there is not much one can change about the interior of the apartment, the only thing that can be done is modifying the furniture inhabiting the space.

After much brainstorming, we ave managed to come up about 101 ideas for the design of the apartment. Since the studio apartments are already quite small to begin with, most, if not all, of the designs are based on multifunctional furniture. Some are rational and already existing, such as the idea of murphy beds or furniture hidden behind walls, and some are quite interesting, if not rather ludicrous, such as the floating apartment (I'm not too sure on how to explain, the idea was not mine), and some, well, has no longer anything to do with the apartment, such as combining two rooms to make one bigger room.

All in all, there are some interesting ideas that could be developed further. The sketches are underway so, in time, it will be easier to understand the illustration rather than words.

experience living in a single room

I noticed that even by researching about the problem, it is still difficult to understand the full length of the problem. They say that the space is small, but what's wrong about it being small?

So I decided to conduct my own research of experience the life in a studio apartment. It's kinda hard to wrap my head around it, since I lived in a 3 bedroom condominium, but then again, I always stayed in my bedroom, and only going out to use the kitchen, dining room, and the bathroom when I needed it. I never used the living room. So it's not that different from a studio apartment. The only difference is that I have walls separating the rooms.

Like others, I also face the same situation, but rather than the room being too small, I find that the problem lies with storage. I can never seem to have enough storage to keep my stuff, so they always lie in piles in the corner of the room. And there's projects, which makes it even harder to keep them all without them getting squished. And my bed seems to take up almost 1/3 of the room, making it smaller that it already is. I do a lot of illustration sketches, so it's not surprising that I have papers all around the place. I don't even have a proper desk, so I would always used the small foldable white table that I can put on the bed whenever I need a flat place to work with other than the floor. Before I would use the wide window ledge by my bed to do my desk-work, but because i have been sitting in a kneeling and hunchback position for long periods of time, I tend to suffer from backaches and leg cramps, which have made reconsider using that area. So now that area is more or less a place for storage or some kind of sitting area so that I can look out the window.

Other than the bed, I also have a dresser table, honestly I used it more for storage and a surface to put stuff that I can just pick up from, and a built in wardrobe. I don't have a bookcase for my books, so I always left the in a box since I never take them out to read anyway so no use in getting another furniture. It'll just make the room smaller.

Since the place is rented I can't just simply renovate the area, so the only way I can think of is by using multifunctional furniture, with plenty of storage space.

Matroshka Furniture

I found this interesting multifunctional furniture set on YouTube when I was researching on different kinds of multifunctional furniture, be it individually or as a set. What I find interesting about this furniture is that everything is compacted into 1 set which is situated just in the corner of the room. I have to agree that the name actually suits because just like the matroshka doll, all the pieces fit together inside. The set of furniture can be used as a home office, a dining room, a lounge/living room and a bedroom.

The pictures below shows how people interact with the furniture:

The actual website for this is here: Matroshka furniture

Interior Design videos

Among all of the design videos that I've watched, the ones that had piqued my interest and inspiration in small space designing were those from faircompanies.com and "small eclectic amazing spaces". These two companies or channels focuses more into interior designing small spaces such as studios or micro apartments or other small housing areas.

faircompanies.com

 Videos from faircompanies.com features designers and what they can do with a small space. It doesn't necessarily mean studios, it could be as small as a ranch, a shed and other places that one might not even consider to be a housing area. Their design solutions are very simplistic and modern, and during videos they explain how their designs are utilized. The downfall is that sometimes, the furniture used are custom-made and built-in so it's pretty costly. Here are some sample videos:

SPACEStv
Another channel that I look towards to is "small eclectic amazing spaces" which is a reality show on SPACEStv channel in YouTube. The videos in this channel shows different people of different occupation from designers to photographers to businessmen, design their small space to suit their needs and at the same time show off their personality. The small space that they preview was not always a studio apartment, some are just certain rooms like a bedroom or even retail shop spaces. What I find interesting about their interior design is that they're all fitting their personality. Also at the fact that unlike faircompanies.com, the furniture used, are not necessarily multifunctional, they standard with only a single purpose and yet, they were able to fit everything in such a small space whilst designing to suit their personality. Here are sample videos:

Case study relating to my problem

In New York City, Manhattan, there are also citizens facing the same problem of having too small a space within the studio apartment. Like us, they want to conserve space, whilst at the same time have the room serve the usage of many different rooms; bedroom, dining room, home office, living room, kitchenette, basically everything one would want and need in an apartment. But because a studio apartment is only one room plus bathroom, it is very hard to fit all those into one room without making it too cramped and stuffy. Whilst some would only have to suffice with a room that can only serve basic needs, there are others who have found solutions to get a room to act as almost 6 different rooms.

Techline Studio is one of those smart ones.

Techline Studio is a company that designs custom furniture and by using that knowledge, they were able to design a studio apartment that fully optimizes its space. This company follows a style that is both functional and versatile, so their furniture is rather multipurpose. For example, in this case study, they built cabinets, around 16" to 24" deep, along the walls that can open up to bedroom, living room, wardrobe, dresser, home office, and dining room. 

This is what the cabinets look like in the apartment. And when they open, you get...

a home office, with some storage for printer or files...or...

 

a dresser with a sliding table, and storage for shoes, jewelry and other miscellaneous items...and when opened even further...

you get a dining table that could serve 2-3 people...

 

it can also open up to reveal a wardrobe with plenty of storage for clothes and shoes and whatnot...

the cabinets can also open up to reveal a bed!

So you can see how Techline Studio makes use of the small living space area. And I believe that the same concept can also be used in Singapore studio or 'shoe-box' apartments to fully optimize its living space...

reference and image source:

Techline Studio: Case study, studio apartment