Cabanon section (Image © STAR-BOARD)
Beatriz Ramo, architect at STAR strategies + architecture, gives Architectural Digest a tour of The Cabanon, the 74-square-foot (6.9-m2) apartment in Rotterdam where she lives with her husband Bernd Upmeyer, architect at BOARD (Bureau of Architecture, Research and Design).
The Cabanon — its name references the similarly tiny Cabanon de Cap-Martin designed by Le Corbusier in 1951 — has received a lot of attention since it was first featured in The New York Times last summer. The attention is justified, given that Ramo and Upmeyer's design for their apartment is creative, colorful, and carefully crafted — a cabinet of curiosities that also happens to be their home. Even though it's easy to grasp just how small 74 square meters is when looking at articles devoted to the project, the way the apartment works comes across best in film, particularly though Ramo's words and actions: revealing the dining table, opening up the kitchen, sitting in the spa, explaining the materials and color choices, etc. Take a tour though “the biggest small apartment in the world”: