This modern 3sqm wooden hut is a concept by Swedish firm Tengbom Architects for affordable student housing called a smart student unit. It cleverly packs about five different traditional types of space into one small volume. But would it actually work?
The concept was developed for students at Sweden’s University of Lund. Each hut is made from local, cross-laminated wood, and fits a sleeping loft, bathroom, kitchen, garden and patio into the layout like a clown car for university kids. It has a fold-down kitchen table, and built-in shelving and storage to maximise the space. It’s such a smart layout that apparently it reduces rent by half and cuts down on its carbon footprint by even more.
Great ideas, in theory. But, in practice, it’s easy to see potential problems. For example, you’d have to find enough land to build them on, and they can’t be stacked — so no dice for urban universities. Second, there’s the issue of actually hooking them up to gas, electricity and sewage systems, which that takes money and planning.
It probably looks nicer than the terrifyingly gross place you spent your freshman year pulling all-nighters and subsisting off of ramen. And it’s an interesting concept. But is there any way it would actually work? [DesignBoom]
