THE POD OF SMALL THINGS
THIS BEAUTIFUL, TINY HOUSE PROVES THAT IT’S POSSIBLE TO LIVE WELL WITH LESS, EVEN IF IT’S ONLY FOR THE WEEKEND – AS ONE COUPLE FROM JOHANNESBURG APPRECIATES
Working for South African design company Dokter and Misses had an unexpected benefit for Khanyi Bukubukwana and Dawn Dludlu. When the company was approached by architect Clara da Cruz Almeida to design the interior of her new modular home, the Pod-Idladla, they got to go and stay in the finished thing. “We love being in nature, hiking and running, so it’s an ideal getaway,” says Khanyi. “And you can open the front door and sit on the verandah with a cup of tea. The design maximises space and light, so although it’s cosy, it doesn’t feel confined.”
With its modest footprint (17 sq m), the Pod-Idldala is a good example of a home built according to the principles of the Tiny House Movement, with its emphasis on living modestly and treading lightly on the land. The prefabricated pods can be customised according to what the new owner requires, and come either as a shell or fully kitted out, as in this example. We were intrigued to find out more…
CLARA’S BIG IDEA
Clara, the architect, wanted to create a prefabricated, compact housing module that could fit into a backyard or garden, and which could be mortgaged like a conventional property. “You bring the house, someone else provides the land, you sign an agreement,” she says. “And then you can build up your savings until you’re able to buy your own home. Or you simply move the house when you’re ready to relocate.” Should you move to a bigger place with your own garden, the little house can come with you and be used as a garden room, or the landowner could buy the house from you, and rent it out. “The basic idea was to live smaller, spend less money, and go out more often,” Clara says. »
THE IDEA COMES TO LIFE
On a visit to Stockholm, Clara met a landscape architect who had converted a cupboard space into a toilet that served a family of four. “I measured it and made a plan,” she says. She also looked at Japanese approaches to living in extremely small spaces. “The Japanese have very flexible rooms with sliding wall systems. What can be a lounge to one person can be a bedroom to another. In a tiny house, every space should have dual purpose – if not triple!”
SPACES NOT ROOMS
Weaving these ideas together, and considering what was the “minimal space needed to live; the space you really need”, Clara created the Pod-Idladla. “It has spaces, not rooms. You could use the task room to store clothes, or to keep your sports equipment. You could have an upstairs study if you don’t want to sleep on the mezzanine.” Even the shower is integrated into the passage space and fitted with marine duck boarding, which gets humid after showering, but not wet. “Is it logical that a facility you use once a day, for five minutes, should have a room by itself?” asks Clara. The high pitch of the ceiling makes the narrow dimensions of the Pod-Idlala feel relatively spacious – a ladder leads up to the mezzanine. “When you want to create a small footprint, go up,” she says, “it’s more economic.”
A CUSTOMISED SPACE
Clara worked with design company Dokter and Misses to create the interior. They installed a plywood box system that can be customised to owner’s specifications. Furniture is dual-purpose: the dining room table can be used fully extended, used as a sideboard, or as a coffee table; the foam couch can be folded into an ottoman, a lounge chair or, pushed together with another unit to make a sofa. “The Pod may look small,” says Khanyi, “but the vertical layout means we have plenty of space. It has everything we need for a weekend away.”