Secret Garden, 300 Square-Feet
I don’t remember how I found it, or which video marked the gate. It was, in that now-familiar way, a match made by an illegible machine—a digital sorting hat that divined from a swarm of my clicks, views, and lingers an interest of mine that I hadn’t been aware of and can’t account for.
A favorite corner: the video opens on a muscled, sun-washed Australian addressing the camera. He stands in front of a wall of ivy, over-saturated, and touts the benefits of living in the city, “where you can have everything you want and need right on your doorstep.” But there are challenges, of course: It could mean living in a smaller space.
Soon, we meet Douglas Wan of Melbourne—he’s an architect, slight and soft-spoken, who lives an apartment in the “it” part of town. He shares that he’s a fan of simple living, a fact that is about to become very clear.
A cut and the camera crosses the front threshold into his home. A striking black kitchen about three cabinets wide. Visible between the counter and top-mounts is the rest of the efficiency, awash in light-plywood and dotted with bits of green.
It’s small and cleverly-designed. Douglas ticks through the smart, necessary innovations he’s incorporated in order to fit his life so elegantly into 300 square-feet—the deep cabinets open on both sides (living room and kitchen); two frosted panels that allow light to travel from the main room into the bathroom; the top of the desk that slides back to reveal his keyboard for music practice.
Now he’s talking about what makes the design of the space work (which it does). Creating a separation of zones is key apparently. He says something about the transition between profane and sacred space which, writing this, I realize I should find off-putting, but I do not.
Thirteen minutes in, the video ends with inoffensive music. Another starts, automatically, and we’re now in Manhattan. A new apartment.
And on like this, in a trance, I continue—watching people share how they make it work in their small spaces. Mostly apartments, but also barn lofts and bike campers. A van conversion maybe, though I don’t like those as much. I can’t tell you why.
I can’t tell you why for any of it, really—why I find it so soothing, why I’ve watched so many hours, why people spend their money renovating small spaces rather than buying something slightly bigger. I just know that I’m glad I’ve found it, tucked away inside the ever-harsher, ever-larger maelstrom of the internet: my own 300 square-foot secret garden.
