The tiny houses, designed by Atelier Kempe Thill, are housed in a small, two-story residential building, with apartments measuring 3.1 meters between floor plans and 33 square meters in area. Each apartment comprises a living area with a kitchen on the ground floor and a sleeping area on the upper floor. Furthermore, with a characteristic degree of space optimization, built-in furniture is used, reminiscent of inhabited furniture rather than typical homes.
The main facade features large fixed windows and double doors, while the entrance doors, also with fixed windows, are located on the rear facade. The small building was constructed using a framework of CLT panels connected to the roof, the suspended ceiling, and the balustrade of the upper floor. Inside, the panels are combined with built-in furniture, wardrobes, and wall shelves made from the same wood. The ground floor was constructed with concrete and a terrazzo floor.
Tiny houses Kappel am Albis by Atelier Kempe Thill. Photograph by Ulrich Schwarz.
Project description by Atelier Kempe Thill
New construction in a Gothic monastery complex
In 2013, Atelier Kempe Thill, together with bbz landschaftsarchitekten from Bern, won the competition for the long-term transformation of the Kappel am Albis monastery in Switzerland. This ensemble of different buildings consists of whitewashed Swiss houses, some of which are half-timbered. On the other hand, there is a row of impressive wooden barns with large roof overhangs. The overall project, which has now been running for more than ten years, comprises a large number of sub-projects. One of these is a small new residential building, which allowed Atelier Kempe Thill to continue its tradition of experimenting with the typical Dutch row house typology in an unexpected way. The client's goal is to create small apartments for temporary rental for the hotel. The old warehouse located on the project site will be demolished for this purpose, as it is not suitable for conversion into apartments. The architectural challenge for the new building lies primarily in the limited space available on the site and the eight apartments desired here. Extensive research into building typologies based on multi-story apartments did not yield any satisfactory concepts.
Furthermore, the village's local building regulations stipulate that roofs must be pointed. This raises the architectural question of how the resulting roof space in a residential building can be optimally used to create real interior quality.
Miniature row house
For these reasons, the typology of the row house is being examined. The result is extremely narrow terraced houses with a dimension between axes of 3.1 meters. These terraced houses have a living area with kitchen on the ground floor and a sleeping area on the upper floor. Both floors are connected by a double-height room that culminates in the pointed roof space above. The small apartment, measuring only 33m2, thus offers a spatially complex and rich situation. The scarcity of usable space necessitates an organization in which all areas interlock like clockwork and every corner is used optimally. For example, the bathroom is located precisely under the stairs in a wall cupboard. All the furniture is designed and built-in so that, apart from a bed, two small tables, and a few chairs, no other loose furniture is needed. In this sense, the houses follow the concept of “tiny houses,” which, with their typical degree of space optimization, resemble inhabited furniture rather than houses.
Tiny houses, which have a long tradition dating back to the 19th century, emerged in their current form in the USA in the 1990s and spread to Europe in the 2000s. On the one hand, they are the result of increasing criticism of consumerism, including the attempt to live with a minimal ecological footprint. On the other hand, they are a typological response to rising housing prices, demographic change, the increase in single-person households, and the resulting need to minimize living space. The tiny houses in Kappel were built for precisely this combination of reasons.
Monolith in wood
The chosen materials further enhance the spaciousness and external appearance. The houses are designed using timber frame construction and benefit from the excellent and precise Swiss timber construction culture. The frames are made of CLT panels, which are also connected to the roof area, the false ceiling, and the balustrade of the upper floor by CLT panels. This creates the basis for the entire interior in wood. The CLT panels are combined with a range of built-in furniture such as wall cabinets and shelves. These are made from the same wood, consistently continuing the monolithic impression. Apart from the basement, only the ground floor is made of concrete and is finished with terrazzo in a color that matches the wood of the walls.
The main façade facing the monastery consists of large fixed glazing and double doors. The area in front of the houses, with its compact water-bound ceiling, serves as a terrace. At the rear, facing the newly constructed monastery wall, are the entrance doors, combined with fixed glazing. The sleeping area on the upper floor is equipped with a reversible window. The closed parts of the facade are clad with wooden slats to emphasize the wooden monolithism, making the new building part of the monastery's barn-like structures.
The roof edge and window reveals are finished in copper. The roof is covered with red roof tiles.
Objectified mass product
The terraced house is one of the most common types of housing in Western Europe. For Atelier Kempe Thill, it has been an important entry point into architectural design from the very beginning. In its simplicity, the terraced house is also a type of housing that can be typologically exploited and objectified almost diagrammatically, as an optimized mass product and, in that sense, an expression of the modern age. Atelier Kempe Thill has devoted several designs to this theme, both in the Netherlands and in a European context. The tiny houses in Kappel, designed as terraced houses for a maximum of one to two people as “mono spaces” and houses and furniture in one, are a radical, almost extreme building block in this research in their minimalist form.
