‘The Cabanon’ in Rotterdam claims to be “the biggest smallest apartment in the world”

What’s the smallest size for a functioning apartment you can think of? If, somehow, you guessed less than seven sqm, you might be onto something. 3.6 m by 1.97 m, with a height of three metres, are the ascetic dimensions of The Cabanon, an apartment design conceived by STAR strategies + architecture and BOARD (Bureau of Architecture, Research and Design), architectural practices of Rotterdam-based couple, Beatriz Ramo and Bernd Upmeyer. The project, deceptively simple in scale, was initiated from the couple’s desire to create a spa room in an existing attic used for storage in their apartment building. Contrary to what one might imagine, the residential architecture incorporates a living room, kitchen and bedroom along with a rain shower and a spa.

“When we started designing the Cabanon we never intended to make the smallest apartment in the world. What we wanted was a ‘mini spa area’ with two infra-red saunas and a whirlpool bath, but we also needed a guest room for our family when they visited us. When we put it all together it came up as a very peculiar apartment of less than seven sqm having two bathrooms,” Ramo elaborates on the initial conception of the radical design. The name for the cosy living space is a homage to Le Corbusier’s cabin at the Côte d’Azur.

Unlike Corbusier’s solitary accommodation, the residential design by the architects is meant to house at most two people. Based on their needs, the design includes small elements such as a bench along the window and a snug bed. Centred on the spa, it does include a small kitchen, if residents desire to cook meals. “On a more personal level, I can say that while designing the Cabanon I looked at our main apartment and I started having an urge to simplify it, to reorganise it more efficiently and to get rid of stuff. This is still an ongoing process…It is basically a new approach to everyday life,” Ramo notes of the minimal design.

Each space within the apartment was planned with consideration of the couples’ heights: 1.72 m and 1.78 m respectively. The official release details the dimensions for each room based on its function and the prerequisite condition of height, resulting in a bedroom with a height of 1.14 m whereas the living area was kept to the generous height of three metres. Further, the designers decided to utilise standard kitchenware, bathroom fittings and furnishing elements to reduce the need for customisation. As Ramo lists, the objects that influenced Cabanon’s dimensions were the bathtub, mattress and fridge.

“The width of the mattress determined the width of the bedroom (and eventually the width of the spa just below); the depth of the fridge determined the depth of the storage wall in the living room; and the length of the bathtub determined the length of the spa room,” she notes. The execution for the design would also be organised around these artefacts as the bathtub had to be placed before building the walls around it. As Ramo reiterates, the star of the house is after all the bathing area that includes the spa, “To have the infrared saunas and the whirlpool bath was our main aim for the Cabanon so everything else would need to adapt to it. The challenge was how to fit all the rest around the spa.”

Apart from the radical approach to planning, what’s most striking about the residence is its interior design. From the coral living room to the mint bedroom, the black shower space and the sky-blue spa, each area comes together like a collage, the sorbet-like colours creating a lively atmosphere. Elaborating on the material choices for the residential interiors, the design team notes that these were the product of multiple iterations, endless offers available in building materials and the will to finish the project in less than four times the initial cost.

Overall, from its material choices to its unconventional conception, Cabanon presents an interesting case study that demonstrates not every room in a household requires the same dimensions in terms of height. By proposing an approach to architecture that considers particularities such as readily available fixtures and the inherent needs of residents, it could become an interesting model for housing design, while not being the one solution to an increasing need for affordable housing. On its practicability and use outside of the experimental space to address issues of accommodation and refuge, Ramo tells STIR, “In housing, however, there is not one model that fits all and what I see as an architect is that there is a lack of more specific proposals for specific households: single mothers, recomposed families, inter-generational cohabitation and many more,” underscoring that the Cabanon is meant to suit the couples’ needs alone; not as a universal model that addresses the multifaceted nature of housing.

“We lack a much more detailed approach for the big universe of households and situations (short-stay, long-stay, permanent living, etc.). There should be a much more diverse spectrum of residential spaces and each of them still with a much more flexible and resilient character,” she continues. In fact, the Cabanon developed after the pair completed a research project in 2012 that dwelled on the “maximisation of space” by sharing, on their project “Co-Residence” for the AIGP (Atelier International du Grand Paris). For the Cabanon, Beatriz Ramo and Bernd Upmeyer took the opposite path and experimented with the reduction to maximise what was available. Whether through reduction or a thorough maximisation of available space, “the biggest smallest apartment” packs a punch.

Project Details

Name: The Cabanon

Location:Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Design Team:STAR strategies + architecture & BOARD (Bureau of Architecture, Research and Design)

Team STAR: Beatriz Ramo with Geoffrey Clamour; Images: Efraín Pérez del Barrio, Ivan Guerrero Jiménez

Team BOARD: Bernd Upmeyer

Thanks to: Ana Beatriz López- Angulo, Javier Ramo, Ana Ramo, and Danae Zachariaki + Claudia Consonni from BOARD.

Collaborators:

Construction:Midwinter – Timmerwerk & Decoratie (Arjen van Caspel and Mirjam Groenendijk)

Area: 6.89sqm

Year of Completion: 2024