Download - Tyler Maiman's Thesis

small spaces

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Contents

Brief.................................................................................................... 5

Premier Inspiration............................................................................ 6

Urbanization...................................................................................10 Why Cities................................................................................. 18 Globally...................................................................................... 22

Today’s Small Spaces......................................................................30 BOXHOME................................................................................. 34 Maff Apartment......................................................................... 36 Domestic Transformer............................................................. 38 Monolocale................................................................................ 40 Finger Apartments.................................................................... 42 Yacht Interior Design................................................................. 44 Winnebago Bus Design............................................................ 46 The Scarecrow “one room house”.......................................... 48 Japanese Style Thinking.......................................................... 50

Small Problems............................................................................... 52

6 Wall Thinking................................................................................ 58

Functional Practices....................................................................... 64 Wall Partitions........................................................................... 66 Terence Conran......................................................................... 68

Interviews....................................................................................... 72 Stacey Fishkin.......................................................................... 75 Sami Rintala.............................................................................. 76 Petra Wilhelmina....................................................................... 77 Markie Melo............................................................................... 78 Summary.................................................................................... 79

Future Appliances/ Technology...................................................... 80

Conclusion..................................................................................... 86

References..................................................................................... 88

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I am designing for the young professional ur-ban dweller that has just moved into a densely pop-ulated city, such as New York City. There are many everyday problems of liv-ing small, but with much research and intelligent design practices there are solutions to make these living spaces feel like just the right size.

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PrimaryInspiration

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In April of 2010 I participated in Electro-lux’s annual Design Lab Competition. Elec-trolux is a company that focuses on innova-tive design of home appliances that tend to the real needs of customers. In their 2010 Design Lab Competition they concentrated on what they call “The 2nd Space Age” and provided its participants with this brief:

Electrolux Design Lab 2010 invites global undergraduate and graduate indus-trial design students to create home ap-pliances that consider shrinking domestic spaces. Your ideas will shape how people prepare and store food, wash clothes, and do dishes in the homes of 2050 when 74%* of the world’s population are predicted to live in an urban environment. Growing populations living in concentrated areas dictate a need for greater space efficiency.

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As I went through my research and design phases I constantly reminded my-self of the statistic they used in their brief. In 2050, 74% of the world’s population is predicted to live in an urban environment. This is the foreseen trend prediction of our world’s future.

As much as I was just looking at it as a design challenge, I kept coming back to the fact that this was a reality.

After I submitted my design for a fu-ture home appliance I kept thinking, how is this flood of people moving into urban environments going to affect the design of these domestic spaces and the products we own, especially when there is a need for greater space efficiency?

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Urbanization

People were once nomadic. We were hunters and gatherers traveling the land to provide for our families and create a safe and healthy life for ourselves. But we never were stagnant until we started to grow crops and raise animals. This approach caused us to settle and develop villages, which gradually matured into larger towns. Soon enough these towns attracted a diverse assortment of people and developed into structured so-cieties. Laws eventually became established, religion was developed and markets full of all the necessary services were formed. These towns were now constantly growing into what today is known as a “city”, and lifestyles began to change. With this congregation of people and knowl-edge, technology advanced to new heights and creat-ed more of an industrial economy. With the realization that machines could do work much faster than people could, people began to leave their country side farms and started to urbanize. This shift of farming to factory working changed many people’s lives.

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Each block on the map illustrates one county in the US. The height of each block is proportional to that county’s population density in the year 2000, so the volume of the block is proportional to the county’s total population. The color of each block shows the county’s projected change in population between 1970 and 2030, with shades of or-ange denoting increases and blue denoting decreases. The patterns of recent population change, with growth concentrated along the coasts, in cities, and in the South and West, are projected to continue.

- United States Global Change Research Program

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“America is becoming more urban. The fraction of Americans living in cities increased from 40% in 1900 to more than 75% today and this increase is projected to continue.”

- United States Global Change Research Program

1900

40%

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75%

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“In 1800, only 3 percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas. By 1900, almost 14 percent were ur-banites, although only 12 cities had 1 million or more inhabitants. In 1950, 30 per-cent of the world’s popula-tion resided in urban cen-ters.” 1800

1900

1950

-Population Reference Bureau

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“In 2008, for the first time, the world’s population was evenly split between urban and rural areas.”

urbanrural

-Population Reference Bureau

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Why Cities?

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Cities make a lot of sense for humans. Rather than being spread out over large masses of land, in rural areas, people can be gathered in a well-developed, structured metropolis. In these cities it is easier for government and others to provide necessary resources such as water, electricity, health, transportation and education to the masses.

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The convenience of commerce is also avail-able at almost every street corner. With this effi ciency of providing services, cities es-tablished strong economies and generated large scale job opportunities.

Beyond the essentials that a city offers, these urban agglomerations provide a great deal of activities for your free time. You can visit museums, parks, theaters, concerts and many historic attractions.

-United Nation Population Fund

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This is currently happening globally

“The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history.”

-United Nation Population Fund

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Tokyo, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Cairo, Egypt and New York City, New York are some of the world most populated cities. With the past trend of more and more people inhab-iting these cities, certain mea-sures are going to have to be taken into account to prepare for this urbanization.

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NEW YORK

Projected Population by 2025Population in 2005Population in 1950

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Total projected population by 2025 (in millions)10 SAU PAULO

21MEXICO CITY

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KINSHASA

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CAIRO

TOKYO

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This world map shows the evolution of population growth and the United Nations’ projected popula-tion for the urban agglomeration in 2025 for the Urban Age cities and some of the largest and fast-est growing urban centers around the world.

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MUMBAI

DELHI

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KINSHASA

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SHANGHAI

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Compact Living in ChinaPhotography by Michael Wolf

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Cairo, Egypt

“the next few decades will see an unprecedented scale of urban growth in the developing world. This will be particularly notable in Africa and Asia where the urban population will double between 2000 and 2030: That is, the accumulated urban growth of these two regions during the whole span of history will be duplicated in a single generation. By 2030, the towns and cities of the develop-ing world will make up 81 per cent of urban humanity.” -UN Population Fund

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Photograph by Alfredo Wang


Tokyo, Japan

“by 2030, more than half of all Asians and Africans will live in urban areas”

-UN Population Fund

-Cities of The Future

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Today’sSmall Spaces

Small, if done right, may be considered just the right size.

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There are many positives to living small.

Smaller spaces require much less energy which also means much lower bills.

They require less building resources which then have a lower impact on the environment.

They also limit what you buy so you don’t start to collect excess clothing, furniture and appliances you cannot store.

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By: Sami RintalaOslo, Norway

BOXHOME 200 sq. ft.

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This living space, designed in 2007 by the archi-tect Sami Rintala, is 200sq. ft. and is located in Oslo, Norway. BOXHOME insures the basic living functions by providing a kitchen with dining, bath-room, living room and bedroom. “The design is therefore a testimony that less is more. While reducing floor area by taking out the redundant unnecessary space and working on optimizing the rest, a great emphasis is placed on the quality of space, sunlight, as well as material. The process results in a significant reduction in construction cost to 1/4 of the price of any same size apartment being built in the same area.”

-Camille Chami

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By: Queeste ArchitectenThe Hague, Netherlands

Maff Apartment 323 sq. ft.

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This living space, designed by Queeste Architec-ten, is 323 sq. ft. and is located in The Hague, Netherlands. Maff apartment is designed to ac-commodate 2 people, a dining area for up to 4 people, a kitchen, a toilet, a bathroom with a show-er and various storage facilities. “The goal of the design was to create a living envi-ronment that would be spacious despite the small volume, providing all the comforts belonging to luxurious contemporary lodging. In addition, Maff Apartment was to have a clear and strong identity to provide a sense of uniqueness for its users.”

The space was designed using a limited color and form palette consisting mainly of white, orange and black and is equipped with plenty of natural light. The rounded corners of the space add to its feeling of softness.

-Queeste Architecten

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Domestic Transformer 344 sq. ft.

By: Gary ChangHong Kong, China

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This living space, designed by the architect Gary Chang, is 344 sq. ft. and is located in Hong Kong, China. Gary Chang designed this small apart-ment with a sliding wall system that can transform this tiny domestic space into 24 different rooms. In a city, such as Hong Kong, where space is pre-cious and people are forced to live small, this so-lution is revolutionary.

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By: Andrea LupacchiniRome, Italy

Monolocale

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This living space, designed in 2002 by Andrea Lu-pacchini Architecten, is located in Rome, Italy. An-drea Lupacchini Architecten designed this small studio apartment to be fully equipped with a full kitchen, a dining area, a living area, a bathroom, and a sleeping place as well as much room for storage. The architects were tasteful in dividing up the open floor plan to accommodate all these separate spaces. The apartment is dynamic and uses the space wisely from the floor to the ceiling.

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By: nooroof architectsManhattan, New York

Finger Apartment 640 sq. ft.

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This apartment, designed by noroof architects for a family of 4, is 640 sf. and is located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. This narrow, family style, apartment hardly has enough space to accommodate for all the family’s needs, but with their intelligent design solutions, one room can easily turn into two.

“these features are critical space-savers that al-low them to live peacefully in the postage stamp-size apartment, but the inventive design is also a reminder that livability isn’t just about organiza-tion and tidiness; it’s about the joy of interacting with a space.”

-Sarah Rich, Dwell Magazine

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Yacht Design

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Photography by Nicolas Claris

The design of the interiors of yachts is definitely something to be inspired by when designing oth-er small spaces. When you walk onto a yacht it seems so spacious and makes so much sense. Why is this? When designing these homes for the water, designers make sure to incorporate 3 basic principles; large windows, materials and storage. By having large windows, which provide natural light, it takes your mind off or the interior space and eludes you to feel like there is more room. Many yachts use materials that have a shine, such as woods and stainless steel appliances. These ma-terials reflect the natural light and ignite the room with even more lighting. To accommodate for the lack of space, these boats always include furni-ture and wall units that offer storage solutions.

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Winnebago Bus Design

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Just like yachts, Winnebago buses are great examples of making the most of small spaces. Whether used for touring or as your permanent home, these buses are designed to provide ev-erything a home can offer. With storage always being a problem in small spaces, these buses use overhead cabinets and furniture that also func-tions as storage to solve this problem. Some of these buses also have an expandable wall fea-ture that opens up the room when parked. This simple transformation increases the size of the space immensely and retracts when on the go.

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The Scarecrow “one room house”

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This film, starring the comedian Buster Keaton, was releases in 1920. Although a very short film (about 19 minutes long) there is one scene that is most memorable from this movie. It was the scene where the two actors, Buster Keaton and Joe Roberts, share a small house full of wacky gadgets and multifunctional everyday items that are reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg type of illus-tration. Buster Keaton’s clever way of thinking and inventiveness was definitely inspiration to many of today’s multifunctional designs. When going about designing for an urban small space, this scene will definitely influence my way of thinking and remind me it’s not just about living in a space but it’s about interaction with the space as well.

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Japanese Style Thinking

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Photograph by Private House Interior

Japanese style interiors have been slowly evolv-ing for centuries. One of the most important con-cepts of Japanese interior design is the idea of a room being simple enough that it can become any room you want it to be. This is all made pos-sible by designing using a neutral color pallet and functional furnishings. The futon is a typical piece of Japanese furniture. At some point in the day a room with a futon can be a place to relax and en-tertain while at another point in the day this piece of furniture may be used to take an afternoon nap. The same is for the very iconic Japanese screen dividers. This product allows for the ability to be flexible with a room. You can easily move the screens and change the space entirely by creating a whole new area within a room. There is a lot that can be learned from this extremely old style of designing a space. Especially when space becomes more precious and we have to be cautious about the ways we design; maybe we can take a personal lesson about “how less really can mean more.”

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Small Problems

After some research and case studies from people who live in small spaces I came to realize the main activities held in peoples living quarters, what problems they faced and what they wished they had more of.

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Z Z Z

The most common use of apartment spaces were for eating, sleeping, bathing, and relaxing.

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Do NotDisturb

The most common problems people had with their small spaces dealt with ventilation issues and airflow, lack of entertaining space for people, heat caused from appliances, storage of clothing and privacy.

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People wish they had better ventilation, more seating for guests, more storage options, more privacy and a quieter space.

Do NotDisturb

shhh

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6 Wall Thinking

Most of the times when small spaces are designed people don’t use the space to its maximum potential. The average apartment uses the 4 or more walls for decoration and storage. The floor is used for putting the furni-ture and rugs on, to divide up the space, and the ceiling for the fixed lighting. Now there are many apartments that have been creat-ed that are beautiful and comfortable spaces from designing this way, but with this rise of population into cities these apartments are not using the space to it maximum potential.

We need to do what I call “6 wall thinking”

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By thinking beyond just giving the 4 walls of a space the most function and delegat-ing functionality to the other two walls, the fl oor and the ceiling, we are taking a step in the right direction to achieving the maximum potential of space use.

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1-4. the main 4 walls5. fl oor6. ceiling

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wallsv s

This room is a great example of a well designed room using 4 wall thinking. Here the ceiling is used as a wall to a provide lighting and the floor is used at its most basic func-tion of a platform for furniture.

4 Photography by DC

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These two design practices are great exam-ples of the ways to use your other two walls, the floor and the ceiling. On the left the ceil-ing’s main function is to provide lighting as well as a place to stow away your bed. On the right the floor is given another function as a storage option. Both these design dis-appear when not in use and help provide a more functional space to live in. By using 6 wall thinking when space is limited you can potentially create more options to better your living situation.

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Functional Practices

Using wall partitions as room dividers is a great way to divide up space within a persons living quarters. This use of dividers grew from the inspiration of traditional Japanese sliding screens. By using wall partitions systems, or room dividers, an open space can easily be transformed into two separate private spac-es. Although these walls are great for creat-ing multiple separate spaces they may also be helpful in covering up unpleasant parts of small space, such as an area with wash-ing machines or a cluttered bookshelf. Simply slide these walls over to hide them and uncover them when needed.

Wall Partitions

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The Sliding Door Company

The Sliding Door CompanyPhotograph by Dudye

Gary Chang’s “Domestic Transformer” is a great example of an innovative thinking using these wall partitions. He created a system that made a small space easily transform into 24 different rooms by just organizing these wall in different ways. This type of thinking may just be what small spaces in the future need to make the most of the space provided.

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is an extremely talented and world renowned British designer. He is also known as a restaurateur and a major retailer. In 1956 he established the Conran Design Studio. Here he de-veloped a multidisciplinary group of designers which concentrated on the practices of exhibition, graphic, fur-niture and interior design. He soon developed the well-known chain of stores, Habitat. These stores set out to be much more than a furniture store. Conran states “It was design to be constantly changing, with new looks and ideas. However, classic cookware and furniture was the pre-dominant base of it all.”

Terence Conran

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After much success in the design industry, especially with interior design, Con-ran wrote many books having to do with residential home design. When rec-ognizing that many people, especially in urban areas, were opting in there large living spaces for smaller ones, Conran wrote many books about living smaller. One that was very informative was “Conran’s Living in Small Spaces”. In this book he goes over the benefits of living small, basic interior design principles and tackles the issues one would have of living in small spaces. He does this by walking you through each tight living space and provides you with simple solutions and techniques on how to make the most of your small space.

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What makes this space well designed?

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1 Large windows are a huge advantage in a small space. Not only does it fill your room with lots of natural light but it also increases your perception of space.

2 Mirrors just like windows increases your perception of space and makes you believe there is more. This room uses mirrors ex-tremely well. By placing mirrors near a window they can be most effective in our perception of space as well as dispersing of the natural light.

3 In small spaces privacy is important. By simply opening up these curtain dividers the room doubles in size. When closed you have 2 separate spaces where you can be alone if necessary. With this element you are providing options for yourself and giving yourself the ability to change the space if needed.

4 By painting the ceiling a lighter color than the walls you are creat-ing the illusion of height. This gives a the room a grandeur feel as apposed to if the ceiling was a dark color, it would feel more cavernous.

5 Wall and ceiling lights are excellent choices for light sources. By having this fixture hang from the ceiling it does not take up much space in the room. This fixture in particular is very useful because you can point the many lights in areas you would like to illuminate, giving you more control over the look and feel of the room. The fix-ture also defines the space. It is claiming that this area is an area for activity.

6 It is very important to incorporate organic materials and plants throughout the space. It gives energy and life to a room, creating a more pleasant and natural feel.

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Interviews

I constructed interviews with Architects and Interior Designers to find out how one can make the most of a small space, using different design practices. My interviews provided me with diverse responses, all which aided me to better understand different ways of going about this design process.

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Stacey FishkinCreative Director at CDAInterior Designer

Bio: Stacey Fishkin is a professional Interior Design-er and is the creative director at CDA (Creative Design Associates) in Manhattan, NY. She has had much ex-perience in the field of Interior Design and has been apart of many high end designs for mainly residential spaces.

How can colors, textures and patterns effect our awareness of space?Colors and textures are very important; they break up space and create depth when there may not be any. Light colors make the room feel larger and darker colors will feel more cavernous depending on the space. A nice textured wall when you first walk in or in the back of the room gives a lot of depth and it almost creates an extra space.

What techniques can you use to divide up a space?There are so many different ways to do this. You can use resin or glass walls which are great in a small space because they allow light to go through the wall so each room section does not feel enclosed. You can also do this with furniture. If you are creating some sort of studio space you can use a floor to ceiling book shelf to separate space or even wardrobes to create more storage.

How can you make a room seem larger than it really is?

Color and texture are really great ways to do this. Like I said before, light colors can definitely make a room feel larger than it is. Accent walls with wall covering (texture) or just a slighting darker shade a paint will give the illusion that there is more space. Also, if you could create these spaces with taller ceilings, that helps as well. Mirrors are also a great way to create the illusion of more space.

Are there any basic principles I should follow when designing?

I don’t necessarily think there are basic principles to follow. I think that if a design works, it works. If it’s functional and people like it then you succeeded.

What is your design process?

When I start designing a room, I find a room that has already been designed, a time period, a piece of artwork, anything that gives me a little inspiration and then I design the room based on that. So after I find my inspiration I just start looking at furniture and color and accessories to bring the room together based on my inspiration.

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Sami RintalaRintala Eggertsson ArchitectsArchitect

Bio: Sami Rintala is a professional Architect from Norway. He has done many successful and beautiful designs that have been published in books and magazines. He is the Architect of the very well know design, BOXHOME.

One interesting test with Boxhome was to make the spaces dark instead of white, which is the usual strategy. When it is dark enough, the boundaries disappear and the room feels larger. Otherwise well formed ( fixed) furniture is highly important, how the little space suggests your body to move about and use the room.

What is most important to you when designing an environment that is so limited with space?

To compensate the loss of size with other qualities, like functionality, materials, natural light, views = good architecture.

How can you design a space to make the environments seem bigger than they really are?(materials,windows,textures?)


This is depending on the project, we are very little dogmatic about our strategies. Usually, in a good case, we can design the basic form and structure beforehand, and then all the details while we are building. This is giving good results and it is fun.

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Petra WilhelminaSyracuse UniversityInterior Designer

Bio: Petra Wilhelmina is a senior Interior Design student at Syracuse University.

Use glossy surfaces on the counter tops and the flooring to reflect light around a room.

What are ways of dividing up spaces within a room?

Ceiling soffits can help to give the room a more dynamic feel while also claiming a space. Rugs can be placed in certain areas to define a space. Changing of materials and colors can help ease you into another room. Different types of lighting throughout a room can differentiate spaces. Down lighting can add a horizontal feel to a room. Back lighting and floor lighting are also other ways of using lights.

What are ways of spreading out natural light in a space?

How can you make the room seem larger than it really is?

Large windows, mirrors, light colored walls, textures and patterns, and false windows are some ways of creating illusions that the room is larger than it really is. Placing mirrors near windows helps to open up the room.

Additional key information to remember:

- Try and bring some of nature into the room and use organic forms when you can. - Remember ADA Codes- Always remember to consider the door swing when designing an interior.

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Markie MeloSyracuse UniversityInterior Designer

Bio: Markie Melo is a senior Interior Design student at Syracuse University.

How can colors, textures and patterns effect our awareness of space?Colors, textures, and patterns can be used as devices to highlight important areas or aspects of an interior environment, which can ultimately alter the perception of space. For example; color and textures can be used to delineate spaces, aid in way finding, highlight structural as-pects i.e. soffits, ceiling planes, flooring planes etc. Colors can be linked to human emotion and manipulated to affect the user. For example a colors wavelength affects its human perception such as red, which has the highest wave length excites and stimulates, where blue which as the lowest wavelength calms and soothes.

What techniques can you use to divide up a space?Space can be divided in many ways; The most common successful dividers are the use of:Partition walls, changes in flooring or ceiling planes, material changes and transitions, lighting changes and transitions, and the use of furniture and spatial planning. There are other non-traditional devices used as well, such as using sound, such as retail environments often play different music to separate different departments.

How can you make a room seem larger than it really is?

Making a space seem larger than it is can be achieved through many different devices; some devices that aim to maximize efficiency of small spaces are: using verticality within a space, maximizing natural lighting and effectively using artificial lighting, using reflective surfaces, and specifying furniture and utilities which have multiple functions.


Simply- research, analysis, ideation, sketching, client approval, proposals, revisions, final pro-posal, construction.

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What are some Interior Design absolute Nos?

Never design arbitrarily or without thought of the users. Always design for people first, think about the user at all times. Always consider the safety, emotions, and needs of the user. In terms of No’s” within materials and spatial layout, there aren’t really any, I think that if you de-sign with intent and thought of the user, that any choice can be supported. If you can back up a reason for why you chose to do something, then there is validity in any design choice.

What ways can you spread light around a room with materials and such?

Reflective materials can bounce light, especially if placed opposite from a source of light. Re-flective and light colors applied to specific planes, such as ceilings, walls, and floors can be effective in spreading lighting. Reflective materials do not mean mirrored specifically, but any-thing with a gloss, hard, or polished finished which refracts light around the space. There are also products that can better spread natural lighting throughout a room such as light shelves, which bounce light upwards to the ceiling.

summary of interviews:

- The most common response according to, creating the illusion of more space within a small room, was to mainly use lighter colors such as white, and to paint the ceiling a lighter color than the walls. Although this is the most common strat-egy Sami Rintala used a different strategy when designing BOXHOME. He tried to make this space dark because “When it is dark enough, the boundaries disappear and the room feels larger.” His design was successful and may be something I want to remember when I go about my design process.

- Mirrors and large windows can have a strong impact on your perception of space.

- When space is limited try to incorporate furnishings that have more than one func-tion to make the most of your space.

- Remember to put yourself in the users shoes when designing.

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Future Appliances / Technology

As more and more people are shifting to this urban lifestyle, there has been a constant shift in technol-ogy as well. This growth in technology has had a major impact on our home appliances, which have made it easier to live smaller. Look at the rather new televisions on the mar-ket. These slim powerhouses of entertainment are gaining more functions day by day, whether it be with more channels, video gaming, or internet activity, they are a great example of how design-ers are using new technology in home appliances while considering the want for more space.

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Appliances always come with a cord, and these cords always lead to problems. They are either in the way of our other ac-tivities, uneasy to look at, or there just are not given enough outlets. Design trend have shown that more and more appli-ances are going towards wireless power. Some companies are claiming this idea of wireless power is going to be almost everywhere in the home. Eventually you will be able to just set down your device, whether it is a cellular phone or a blender in your kitchen, and it will be given the power to function. This is made possible by coils that are imbedded into your home sur-faces. Your appliances recognize the power source and when placed on top of, your appliances will be able to function. This concept could have a large impact on small residential space because it allows you to be less restricted with how and where you use your appliances. With this technology you are not con-strained by the length of a cord.

-Emily Ho, The Kitchn

“We were amazed to see a pan of water boiling on a simple coun-ter top, eliminating the need for a stove. The possibilities for future small space living and multi-use spaces are just incredible.”

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Appliances are also becoming smarter. They are considerate of our experience when using them and the impacts they have on the envi-ronment as well as our wallets. The newest clothing washing machines on the market today have become much more advanced than a couple years ago. LG is one company who is leading the trend when it comes to washing our clothes. There machines are much more slim than past washing machines and can detect how much laundry you have loaded and determine the wash time for you. By having this technology you always use the correct amount of water, and heat for drying in ac-cordance to the amount of laundry you have. This has a huge effect on the environment as well as our energy bills. These machines also have become much quieter over the years. Now you can do laundry at home and not be disturbed by the tumbling of clothing going through the cleaning process. In small spaces a laundry machine could really disrupt your home time due to the noise. With technology such as this you can enjoy your small spaces much more while you are simultane-ously getting your chores done.

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On the trend of appliances becoming smarter we can look at how this type of technology is effecting our kitchen appliances. Some appliances such as microwaves are being designed to incorporate internet type of functions that guide you in the cooking process. You can now perform a search on the internet with an interface housed in an appliance. This application can instruct you how to prepare the dinner of your choice easily right there, no cook books necessary.

This concept microwave has an An-droid imbedded interface which is connected to the internet. It has all the simple functions and options of a microwave and now more. By be-ing connected to the internet you can look up recipes on The Food Network, listen to pandora while your cooking, or even download applications which may make life easier in the kitchen.

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Conclusion

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The research I have performed has given me much insight into why this statistic that started my inquiries, in 2050, 74% of the world’s population is predicted to live in an urban environ-ment, is the foreseen future. Not only am I aware of why this is happening, but I have studied what designers and architects have experimented with to accommodate for a future where space is precious. By taking into consider-ation about what makes each design I have researched so special and ap-plying that to a product of some sort that enhances the experience of living small or creates much more from less, I will have the opportunity to design something that may better downsized living situations.

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