By Mark McConville

THIS AMAZING ninety-six-square-foot tiny house has furniture folded inside its walls to mimic the functionality of a Swiss Army knife and cost just £35k to build.

Stunning pictures and video footage show the multi-functionality of the house as a room of while walls can fold out to contain a bed and a kitchen complete with a hob and cupboard space or a table and chairs for entertaining guests.

aVOID at Bauhaus Campus. Leonardo Di Chiara / mediadrumworld.com

 

Other striking images show the separate shower and bathroom area which can be accessed through a small gap in the wall.

This ‘Swiss Army’ tiny house, called aVOID, is the result of an artistic-architectural research project directed by Leonardo Di Chiara in collaboration with Tinyhouse University and supported by numerous internationally renowned technical partners.

aVOID test living. Stefan Dauth / mediadrumworld.com

“During all my life I have lived in a very small room in my parents’ apartment in Pesaro, Italy. I was forced everyday to learn how to organize my space, fit all of my belongings inside the few cabinets, and to adapt my space to host my friends to play or later to study,” said Leonardo.

“I grew up with a minimalistic lifestyle, which certainly influences my design. From past experience in my room I learnt the importance of emptiness – functionally and physiologically speaking.

Leonardo Di Chiara on the terrace at Bauhaus Campus. Leonardo Di Chiara / mediadrumworld.com

“This is why I started developing transformable furniture where everything can be hidden into the wall surface when it is not in use, having as a result ‘a void’ ready to be used again.

“Living inside my tiny house is such an amazing experience and it helps me to improve the quality of the space.”

Bedroom. Leonardo Di Chiara / mediadrumworld.com

aVOID is currently parked in the middle of Berlin inside the garden of Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum of Design, but Leonard has plans to Copenhagen, the Netherlands and Paris before returning home to Italy.

The house, composed by a single room lacking of any piece of furniture, is made functional by the activation of wall-mounted mobile devices, which enable different uses of the living space.

aVOID + Leonardo Di Chiara. Giacomo Terracciano / mediadrumworld.com

Leonard explained what life is like living inside this tiny ninety-six–square-foot space where furniture must be pulled from the walls.
“Living inside aVOID is not, in my case, just a minimalistic challenge measurable in square meters,” he said.

“Rather it seems an intimate relationship that, over the past few months, is getting me in direct contact with my first creation as an architect.

Transformable furniture. Anna Fontanet Castillo / mediadrumworld.com

“It happens often that I stop and think, watching the space in its different functional arrangements. The living experience allows me to verify, test and modify the house, implementing it with new solutions.

“For this reason I call aVOID an “open” prototype: a work-in-progress construction site. The tiny house is like a short instruction manual to reductionism.

aVOID tiny dining. Tinyhouse University / mediadrumworld.com

“By itself, it teaches and pushes you to deprive yourself of unnecessary things, to consume less water and less energy, to put back your clothes in their place and to wash the dishes immediately after eating.

“The void, which is obtained by closing again all the wall-mounted furniture, is the refuge of my creativity. The absence of any visual distraction caused by personal objects or daily business makes room for my imagination, which is reflected into my future designs.”