Tiny Wooden Homes For Swedish College Twentysomethings

“A few years ago, Swedish student housing company AF Bostäder had a young woman from the city of Lund inside live in a tiny house-box–not even 10 square meters large–to test the idea of a cheap, cheerful, and environmentally friendly “smart student unit” that included a toilet, kitchen, and bed. “I think she still lives there,” says Linda Camara of Tengbom Architects, the company behind the 2013 iteration of the living pod–a petite vision in pale wood offset with lime green plant pots, cushions and stools.

   The premise for the cube, which has been in the works since 2007, is reasonable enough: students live and die on cheap housing, but everyone needs a toilet. It’s taken six years to whittle the tiny houses down to the current cross-laminated wooden test model form. The large kitchen was squirreled away in the original blueprint, but Tengbom redesigned it as the prime area after student feedback. The current space-efficient design, complete with a patio and vaulted sleeping area, lowers standard rent rates by 50%–music to the ears of any economically bereft twentysomething.…”

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