Students of Munich University, in Germany, tested the "micro-house." Created by British architect Richard Horden, the micro-house is, simply put, a big cube. It has two bedrooms, a lounge, a dining room, a kitchen, and a bathroom, all nicely packed into just 9ft by 9ft by 9ft, reported the BBC.
Step through the front door and you're in the entrance lobby, which doubles as a shower and toilet. A double bed (the second bedroom) folds down over a lounge area, which, with a pull here and push there, triples as a dining room seating four people. The seats double as storage cupboards, and can be cleared away to create a dance floor big enough for three or four people to dance the night away to the beat of the in-built surround sound system.
Munich University is keen to test the feasibility of the micro-house, which may provide a solution to its problem of having some 90,000 students and only around 10,000 accommodation units. A small village of micro-houses is being set up on campus, taking up half the space per unit compared to the sea containers the University already puts to use to, as student accommodation.
The micro-house units can be stacked on one another or laid out in streets. The micro-house was designed around ideas from 200 architecture students, and architects behind the scheme admit the units are too small to live in permanently. Rather, the units are intended to provide short-term solutions whilst permanent accommodation is being sought.
Several local authorities in the UK are considering using micro-houses to help meet temporary accommodation needs. The units are easy to transport, making them ideal for use on land vacant for short periods pending development.
Germany tests 9ft 'micro-house'
BBC News, 1 November 2005