Friday, January 16, 2009

From Homeless Chateau to a Box of Tricks


As I am new to GreenMuze, I excitedly visited the website last night to see what fascinating things I would discover. My quickly caught a feature on The Homeless Chateau by nomadic artist James Westwater.

The Homeless Chateau is "a 4ft x 8ft x 4ft small dwelling made from FSC certified and recycled materials, which makes a provocative statement on the need to reclaim small spaces."

After living in a 120 square foot then-girlfriend-now-wife and three dogs, Westwater began wondering how small could one go with a house. Before long, he was inspired to build a Plywood Chateau he nicknamed Chateau for the Homeless Artist in his garden. He would invite people to stay in it, as in an artists' residency program. As he put it, "I guessed it would be smallest live/work residency in the country." With homelessness a genuine concern, it's a thought provoking art piece to say the very least. Read the full interview here.


From GreenMuze, I found myself on my favourite source for news and intriguing info, the NYTimes where on the very topic of small architecture, I came across "24 Rooms Tucked Into One." What architect Gary Chang dubs the "Domestic Transformer" is literally a 344-square-foot Hong Kong apartment he renovated last year capable of 24 different layouts.

"The allusion to toy robots seems apt, given the science-fiction quality of the color scheme -mostly black and silver, washed in eerie yellow light."

Just the pictures are worth a look. Click here for a slide show referring to the apartment as a "Box of Tricks."

Would love to know what you think of these small spaces... And if you're new to the site, comment on this January Giveaway post for your chance to win an ecoAgenda if you haven't already ;)

Well that's it for now. Happy Friday!

xo, ej

1 comment:

P said...

Hmm, yes, to address homelessness we need to build really small houses. Brilliant - why aren't the artists in charge?!

Ooops, wait, cynicism alert.

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