Micro apartment

8.75 square metres. 163 centimetres wide, 5 metres long, with a single window at the far end.

The ceiling was too low for a permanent bed, so we designed a hoisting system instead. In the evening the bed lowers into position. During the day it rises flush to the ceiling, and its underside becomes the ceiling itself, fitted with built-in lights so that when the bed is up, light reaches the full depth of the apartment.

The system has three positions. All the way up it disappears completely. Three-quarters of the way down, the sofa below becomes a second bed and the apartment sleeps four. Halfway down gives a comfortable step-in height for two.

Everything else folds away. The table, the stairs, the sliding door that tucks into the bathroom wall. All the fixed elements, kitchenette, shower, toilet, sink, sit along one side of the plan, keeping the opposite wall clear and allowing light to move through the entire length of the apartment.