Compact space designer Nicholas Gurney, in partnership with Electrolux has unveiled a 35sqm hybrid micro apartment of the future – everything you need in a footprint equal to two standard car spaces.

With housing less affordable than ever before, micro living could be the sustainable answer to Australia’s urban housing crisis, say experts.

A walk through the new thought provoking ‘Compact Urban Living’ environment within the Electrolux Experience Centre at Mascot, shows proper design can generate space in even the smallest of them.

Nicholas Gurney, a Sydney-based designer renowned for transforming and enhancing small spaces with human-centred utility, has worked with the Electrolux space in order to inspire designers to discover the design possibilities and ingenuity of Compact Urban Living, coinciding with the release of a new whitepaper on the subject called: Designing for Smaller Spaces.

And while the trend toward apartment living is not new, the number of Australians living in apartments has increased by 78% over the last 25 years, the downsizing of them is. Over the past 15 years apartment floor areas have shrunk 17.5% on average, ABS reports show.

But while small living quarters have historically gone hand in hand with student-style living, the micro trend is about all-inclusive elevated comfort, says Electrolux Global Design Director Scott King.

“Designing smaller and smarter allows Australians to reduce their footprint and size down for a simpler more flexible life, while maintaining all the necessary comforts. This isn’t student living, but proof compact urban living can be luxurious and premium,” King says.

Leveraging this new-gound trendiness of tiny, Electrolux chose 35sqm as this is the same space industry trade shows often allocate to ‘dream’ kitchens. The challenge then for Gurney was to allow for social, work, private and storage zones within this large-kitchen equivalent space.

The industrial designer who’s contributed to upwards of 100 micro projects across Australia and internationally over the past decade, says the micro living trend appeals to a specific market.

“Living at a small scale is often for those at a somewhat transient life stage, such as young people on the way up where the city is their playground, or those who are older and looking to downsize without compromising amenity. What the space highlights is that you don’t have to forego comfort."

"My conceptual focus for the project was to imbue a sense of beautility; creating something equal parts useful and beautiful. Its unconventional design affords a purposeful indication that the possibilities for compact urban living are limited only to one's imagination.”

Keys to the success of this design says the deisgner are high ceilings, natural light, multi-functional furniture and great acts of stealth, with appliances seamlessly integrated to allow for flexible spaces.

Image: Electrolux

Branko Miletic

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