Tiny Origami apartment in Manhattan unfolds into 4 rooms

In 2005, third-grade-teacher Eric Schneider bought as big as an apartment as he could afford in Manhattan. He paid $235,000 for a 450-square-foot studio with a tiny kitchen.

Then he let architects Michael Chen and Kari Anderson of Normal Projects design a way to pack more density into his small space.

In order to fit more apartment in a small footprint, they created an object that's bigger than furniture, but smaller than architecture and that morphs with the changing activities of a day.

It's a large, blue, oversized cabinet that houses all of the walls/bed/tables/shelving/closets needed for at least 4 full-sized rooms.

By continuing to unfold, or fold differently, Schneider can create a bedroom with accompanying built-in nightstand and closets, but an office plus library, a guest bedroom, and a living room. Or close it up entirely and simply flip down the small bar and the room becomes entertaining space for a dozen.

The Normal Projects architects called their creation the Unfolding Apartment, though given Schneider's affinity for the Japanese sense of space (he spent his first year post-college living and teaching in Japan), it could as easily be called the Origami Apartment.

In total, Schneider spent $70,000 total remodeling his new apartment and this includes not just the cabinet, but the bathroom renovation, all cabinetry, kitchen appliances, furniture and dishes.

In this video, Chen shows us his custom cabinet of rooms and Schneider unfolds a few of his favorite configurations: his bedroom (& closet/changing room), office (& library), guest bedroom, kitchen, dining bar, living room and lounge.

Original story here: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/tiny-origami-apartment-in-manhattan-unfo...

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• tiny apartment
• tiny home
• small apartment
• small space
• downshifting
• home size
• simple life
• simplicity
• transformable furniture
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• space-making furniture
• space-saving furniture
• retractable furniture
• fold away furniture
• small space furniture
• downsizing
• small house movement
• small home
• microhome
• tiny house
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• new york city
• manhattan
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• japanese design
• japanese style apartments

[MooseheadDrinker]

lol is there a communal bathroom in the building???

[kirstendirksen]

@MooseheadDrinker If I had a nickle for every time someone has asked that... I just didn't bother to film his (private) bathroom. It was so conventional compared to the rest of the apartment I didn't think anyone would want to waste time watching it. I guess I was wrong.

[sujisushi]

Where's the bathroom???

[watchupclose]

This is better than Mtv Cribs!

[Dakhar]

@the7xa Of course the trade off here is that you live in TEXAS and he lives in MANHATTAN.

[xe3tec]

@eclclie maybe privateschool..and besides, american people dont need money to buy a house, they just hav big debts *g*

[AlirazaTRAVEL]

450 square feet is HUGE for manhattan. this guy is nuts thinking he's got a small place. i lived in 80 square feet for years of my life!

[MigDanskeren]

But how to play Kinect?

[MauryJohn]

It's beautiful. I'm curious what the design fees and construction costs were.

[btsy87]

gOOD IDEA..AND THE BEDROOM?

[eclclie]

how does he have $235,000 to spend working as a third grade teacher

[wordpimp2787]

i was watching south side 13 videos 10 minutes ago now im watching this hahaha....well played youtube well played

[billyfrmhill]

That cabinet is really designed well but the folding panel sounds sort of rickety.