The Cabanon, designed by STAR strategies + architecture and BOARD (Bureau of Architecture, Research and Design), is a fully equipped apartment that measures just 6.89 m², making it one of the smallest living spaces in the world. Despite its compact size, the apartment includes an infrared sauna, a whirlpool bath, and four distinct rooms, each optimized for its specific function. Drawing inspiration from Le Corbusier’s famous cabin, the Cabanon showcases the creative potential of space maximization and innovative design.
The Cabanon Technical Information
- Architects1-4: STAR strategies + architecture & BOARD (Bureau of Architecture, Research and Design)
- Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Surface Area: 6.89 m² (net)
- Volume: 21.19 m³
- Project Year: 2014 – 2024
- Photographs: © Ossip van Duivenbode
The Cabanon makes clear that different rooms with different sizes and functions might not need the same height. The Cabanon seemed to get bigger the more programs were added to it. The adaptation of heights made that possible.
– STAR strategies + architecture & BOARD (Bureau of Architecture, Research and Design) Architects
The Cabanon Photographs
The Cabanon: A Tiny Apartment with Big Ideas
Text by the architects
The Cabanon is a fully equipped apartment of 6.89 m² including two infrared saunas and a whirlpool bath. It is organized into four spaces, extravagantly different in materials and heights: a 3 m-high living room, a 1.14 m-high bedroom with plenty of storage, a toilet with a rain-shower, and a spa. The spa is the most enclosed space of the Cabanon: the room within a room.
The Cabanon is probably the smallest apartment in the world; certainly the smallest with a spa.
The Cabanon is the conversion of an existing attic used for storage into a living space. It is located on the top floor of a 1950’s residential building in the centre of Rotterdam. Its inside dimensions are H: 3 m, W: 1,97 m, L: 3,6 m. It has a 6 m² window overlooking the city.
The Cabanon takes its name from the eponymous cabin of Le Corbusier at the Côte d’Azur. Like the Le Corbusier cabin, the Cabanon of Rotterdam has been conceived by the same architects who will use it. It is 6,89 m², half the size of Le Corbusier’s unit and –unlike his Cabanon– fully autonomous and designed for a couple.
The Cabanon is an experiment in space for Beatriz and Bernd -the architects and the owners, who increasingly saw personal growth in voluntary reduction. However, this reduction was never understood as austerity. The Cabanon is of the most luxurious smallness, an “epicurean reduction”.
The Cabanon is a fascinating manifestation of the specific desires of its owners for their second home. They wanted a small bed to sleep close, and a bench along the window. They didn’t need a large kitchen as they love to eat out during the weekend, but they wanted to have the possibility of cooking nonetheless. They wished to have a rain-shower, two infrared saunas, and a whirlpool bath.
The Cabanon is a temple in the proportions of its owners who became the modulors of their Cabanon. Beatriz’s and Bernd’s heights are 1,72 m and 1,78 m respectively. The spaces at the Cabanon are dimensioned according to the height and width that they need to perform their functions: When they shower they need a space of 2,13 m in height and a width of 62 cm; when they take a bath or use the saunas they need a height of 1,80 m; and when they sleep or sit on their bed they need a height of 1,14 m and a width of 1.35 m. For the living area they wanted to keep the generous height of 3 meters.
The Cabanon makes clear that different rooms with different sizes and functions might not need the same height. The Cabanon seemed to get bigger the more programs were added to it. The adaptation of heights made that possible.
The four spaces in the Cabanon have been shaped based on standard products: the bedroom was designed with a specific mattress in mind; the spa according to the bathtub length; the kitchen based on the mini-fridge depth, in order to avoid the need of customized objects, but rather the other way around: the Cabanon would adapt to standard and affordable products. The execution would also be organized around these: the bathtub had to be placed before building the walls around it.
The materials of the Cabanon could have cost four times more had it been realized in its initial colours. The spa was initially conceived in green marble, the shower in white mosaic, the living room in blue cement-tiles. Irresistible offers in building materials caused the spa to be cladded in black Chinese marble from the 80’s, the shower in bleu mosaic, and the living room in coral cement-tiles. Mint green for the bedroom was the only colour voluntarily chosen, and it rather came as a surprise, as mint green would never have been a first choice.
The Cabanon could help optimizing housing and costs but in no way does it advocate towards the reduction of surfaces as the only strategy towards affordable housing, neither it pretends to become the “house of the future”. However, we can extrapolate some of its strategies in order to make current housing production better and cheaper. Some of these are: the optimisation of space–optimisation not understood as ‘reduction’ but as ‘maximisation’ of the possibilities of one space; the modulation of heights of certain spaces in order to superpose some functions; and the detachment towards possession and consumerism, so we are less inclined to buy and accumulate useless objects that clutter our houses (and minds).
The Cabanon Plans
Video
The Cabanon Image Gallery
About STAR strategies + architecture
STAR strategies + architecture is a Rotterdam-based architecture firm founded in 2006 by Beatriz Ramo. Known for its international projects and research, STAR has won numerous awards and has been published worldwide. Its work, including the recent “Ilot 3H” housing project, focuses on architecture in all its forms, often exhibited at renowned centers globally.
About BOARD (Bureau of Architecture, Research and Design)
BOARD (Bureau of Architecture, Research and Design), founded in 2005 by Bernd Upmeyer, is a Rotterdam-based architecture and urban design firm. Known for its independent magazine MONU and international competition wins, BOARD focuses on urban analysis and design. Upmeyer, who holds a PhD in Urban Studies, is the author of Binational Urbanism.
Notes & Additional Credits
- Principles: Beatriz Ramo, Bernd Upmeyer
- Design Team: STAR strategies + architecture Design Team: Beatriz Ramo, Geoffrey Clamour; Images: Efraín Pérez del Barrio, Ivan Guerrero Jiménez | BOARD Design Team: Bernd Upmeyer
Thanks to: Ana Beatriz López-Angulo, Javier Ramo, Ana Ramo, Danae Zachariaki, Claudia Consonni - Programme: Living unit + spa
- Contractor: Midwinter – Timmerwerk & Decoratie. Arjen van Caspel and Mirjam Groenendijk
- Models-Dancers: Guido Dutilh and Boston Gallacher
