Small is Beautiful — Summer 2018
Efrat Mintz and I were assigned a case study in Abu Tur neighborhood: A family of 6 who lived in a 57sqm, two bedroom house. Three of the four children shared a bedroom, and the youngest child (who was about 2 years old) slept in the parents’ bed.
Ellon, the father, was absent at the time, so our information came exclusively from Linda (the mother) and the kids, who all came off as a very tightly knit family. Linda spoke about the values her family believes in, which highly emphasized sharing, communication and collaboration — all seemed to be very present in our observation of the family’s life.
We singled out four main insights about the family’s dynamics, which we hoped could both serve as general principles to consider, and also allow us to find relevant ways to suggest relevant tools for the family:
- Subversion of Hirarchies and Structures
All spaces are multi-functional, challenging conventionss of space usage and purpose. The parents’ bedroom doubles as storage room, kids’ play area, private-time area punishing area. - Individuality Within a Group
The family operates as a tightly-knit group, both physically and emotionally. At the same time, thanks to the strong support the family provides, each member is secure enough to develop their own distinct inclinations, habits and preferences. - Collaboration versus Privacy
The spaces in the house are, as a general rule, all public. The family members find creative ways to define private areas and boundries within this rule. - Personal Items as a Tool for Defining Boundries
Family members have designated storage spaces for their personal belongings. Those are areas (albeit small) of private space, which they get to shape and arrange according to their own preferences.
One of the main concerns that came up while speaking both with Linda and with the kids was the lack of privacy. Since all of the rooms serve multiple purpose, and all of them are used by multiple people, there are no private spaces. The family rule set mentioned that if one wants privacy, they need to announce it to the rest of the family and go either to their bed or to the parents’ bedroom — which seemed to be a bit counter-productive to the purpose of achieving privacy.
Linda also pointed out she expects the issue to become more apparent as the kids got older, and that she expects this to be what will eventually make it necessary to move out of their house.
Private, Semi-Private, Public
When we observed the different spaces around the house, we noticed the way the house is organized made spaces public, either decidedly or by placing unexpected items (such as, the children’s closet in the living room, etc).
On the other hand, we noticed that the kids’ beds were used not only as a sleeping area, but were also the only place in the house which was deemed completely private, and not shared to any extent — which was further amplified by the kids storing their personal items on the bed and around it.
We wanted to find a solution that will fit well with the Bezaleli family’s existing dynamics and values: Almost all of the spaces are shared, the rules are self-dictated and enforced, and everyone is generally work together, rather than alone. We also wanted to emphaisze communication and mutual respect of boundries, and allow the person seeking privacy to still be a part of the group to some degree, even when seeking to be alone.
Finding Solutions
For references, we looked at all kinds of situations with very small private space:
- Tiny houses: the Tiny House movement refers to a recent trend of building very small, often mobile houses, in order to make them sustainable. Those often require creative ways to address both storage and privacy issues, especially for families. The Bezaleli family seemingly intuitively implemented similar principles and methods practiced by people in the Tiny House movement, so taking reference from it seemed only natural.
- Capsule hotels: affordable hotels which originated in Japan, and recently gained popularity in Europe as well. In those hotels, all of the facilities are communal, except for the bed, that is isolated to a varying degree — sometimes with a solid soundproof door, sometimes with nothing but a curtain.
- Traditional Japanese houses: Japanese houses are small, and do not have designated bedrooms. The space changes its purpose by folding and putting away furniture, and easily altered by opening, closing or moving the walls, which are made of wooden frames and paper, turning spaces from communal to private or vise-versa. The light material is friendly for the often hot and humid environmnet, and is easy to replace when worn-down or damaged.
As we observed these references, we came up with a possible solution that incorporates ideas and principles from all three: A modular paper screen, with either wood or aluminum frame. The paper screens could be left plain, or be personalized by drawing on them. They would be thin and let sunlight into the bed area, and take up minimal space themselves. They can also be fitted to store personal items by adding baskets and/or pockets to them.
Presentation and Additional Photos
