Comthatable tiny homes idea

[alan2here]

Tiny houses are nothing new, in Japan they are big (no pun intended) but are often quite unpleasent. Other verstions of the idea such as caravans totally fail.

 

I have what is probbably a new idea. Imagine a single room, the room has waterproof possible pool like walls and floor, nice for an odd shaped swimming pool but no use for a house.

 

Across the bottom of one wall is something that looks like nothing but upon eximation opens into a slot with the edge of a carpet inside, pull at the carpet and it unrolls covering the floor clipping in neer the floor at the other side. You chose the color and style of this carpet on purchising the space and can for a fee have it changed at any time.

 

Above the carpet slot on this same wall there are other slots which look untill opened like blank pieces of wall, pushing at them opens them up revealing variously sized draws, one has no front side and ends neer the floor at the back of the room, it contains a sofa, one contains a set of taps, several resemble large cupboards and a coupple surfaces one containing a TV.

 

You sit with the sofa, carpet and TV surface extended, anyone who entered this room would presume you had a verry minimal existance probbably not knowning that there was loads of stuff hidden in the other side of the room. They may wonder why you have a small step in your house with a raised laminately floored part apparently just for your sofa.

 

Afterwards you close the sofa and TV surface draws and open a large cuboard like draw pulling out some other things which you arrange in the room, you then open another containing a nice wooden table with an antique look, it's big and looks heavy and works much like the sofa draw.

 

Friends arrive and you have dinner, you could have cooked with the option of owning your own oven or sharing one with the rest of the row which is automatically cleaned between uses but on this occurence you ordered a pizza to be delivered, your guests are initially baffled by the imposiblty of how you got so many large items into your small house though a small door and wonder where the other rooms are in your house as this room seems verry much set up as a dining area not a multipurpose area for living in but it all seems homely enough.

 

Afterwards you put everything away back into the wall including the carpet you pull out the taps and run a bath filling the room one quarter full with water.

 

Getting things delivered and changed would be easy via mantinance passeges behind the smart wall and moving house would be much simpler. The whole thing would be cheep as it takes up verry little space and as comthatable as you like. You could even rent more space possibly including large spaces that you might use for a sports court for just one week.

Edited September 20, 2009 by alan2here

[CharonY]

Actually there was something like that around for German students. It was more a novelty thing than anything else, I think. One difference was that there was a tiny shower/toilet area apart from the rest of the single room (mostly to avoid moisture getting into the main area). The rest essentially moves out of walls as you need them (e.g. table, bed etc.). Combining the wet area with the rest is generally a bad idea, though.

[Skye]

From a hygiene point of view it's better to keep crapping, bathing and food preparation areas seperate.

[CharonY]

I recall that the shower was essentially the toilet area. You closed off the toilet, closed the door and start showering. There were some clever drain and ventilation designs. To avoid humidity being an issue in the rest of the container.

[CaptainPanic]

I think these things could be a solution for people who live in slums. They'd have the same living space as right now, but with improved hygiene and comfort.

 

However, a large part of the costs of housing are the connections to all sorts of grids: water, electricity, wastewater, possibly gas.

[alan2here]

The slum idea causes me to me cringe. This should start as being even better than owning a conventional house with all that redudent space, super econemy verstions could come later.

 

It's only going to work well with lots together in a large building. I can't imagine them working well stand alone so gas, electric etc... would be easy enough, it does however add another service which is all the things the service passage is responsible for.

 

There are hygene advanteges as well as disadvanteges. The toilet could easely be segmented by being in a large enough tab (lets call them tabs for lack of a better word) to go inside while on it. There are also automatic cleaning possiblites, the whole room for example could be disinfected automatically for example while you were out as could shared appliances between requests.

[Pantaz]

How thick must the walls be to "hide" all of these components? What do you do for windows?

 

Also, please define "comthatable".

[randomc]

i don't care how small the place is, when it comes to digs, privacy is the thing. i would rather live in a sound-proof single room than a multi-room luxury flat in which you can here the neighbours cough. There are limits though - rolling up carpets and putting running a bath in your living area? i would end up electrocuting myself.

[alan2here]

How thick must the walls be to "hide" all of these components?

Only one wall has components behind it (at least components that apply to your room). I shouldn't think especially thick.

 

What do you do for windows?

A large OLED light panel could be provided optionally with a window facade also available to clip on. Alternivivly (or also) light could be channeled using mirrors or/and using light tubes to areas not adjacent to the edge of the building. One of the tabs would probbably need to contain the end of the directed light. Ventilation could be managed in a similar way.

 

Also, please define "comthatable".

Sorry. I meant "comfortable". I wish I could correct that on my original post.

 

I don't care how small the place is, when it comes to digs, privacy is the thing. I would rather live in a sound-proof single room than a multi-room luxury flat in which you can here the neighbours cough. There are limits though - rolling up carpets and putting running a bath in your living area? I would end up electrocuting myself.

Not a problem, when you bath there will be nothing in the room except things you have out at the moment being only things you might want to bath with (small shelf containing soap, duck, possibly ledge to sit on) and the edges are waterproof, all the electric things including wall sockets are in tabs and currently behind the smart wall.

Edited September 22, 2009 by alan2here

[Pantaz]

Only one wall has components behind it (at least components that apply to your room). I shouldn't think especially thick.

Considering the items you suggested, I disagree:

... [roll of] carpet inside, pull at the carpet and it unrolls covering the floor...

 

... variously sized draws, one has no front side and ends neer the floor at the back of the room, it contains a sofa, one contains a set of taps, several resemble large cupboards and a coupple surfaces one containing a TV.

 

...another containing a nice wooden table with an antique look, it's big and looks heavy and works much like the sofa draw.

 

... mantinance passeges behind the smart wall...

[alan2here]

Considering the items you suggested, I disagree:

Sorry, I was not at all clear. Your room neighbors only one maintenance passage and it is behind the smart wall. The carpet tab is very thin at the bottom and the roll is either below and behind the smart wall or further back as not to get in the way of other things. For the sofa tab with the front missing I meant by the front the side facing the room when the tab is open, the tab is on the end of the wall so that you don't get a sofa in the middle of the room. There are little ledges that drop down around it to give the impression that there is a slightly raised laminate floored part of the room as the carpet tab prevents the sofa tab ending right at the bottom. The cupboard like tabs can go anywhere. You probably want the sliding one that is the desk to go in one end as well to be against a wall and it has an unfolding leg, maybe the TV should just go into a cupboard tab as most modern TV's are quite light and it preserves space on the smart wall. There is also the utility (shared appliances) and the toilet room ones but they should fit with just a little step for the carpet.

 

Layout would have to be carefully considered for everything to fit.

 

Is this what you meant?

Edited September 22, 2009 by alan2here