Minimalist Design for Minimalist Space Living

March 12, 2009 at 3:05 pm (Design)

Some interesting ideas, especially for the spacially challenged, such as the apartment dwelling Gilding.

So this piece is useless in apartment living, unless you’ve managed to move into one that doesn’t have a bathroom, in which case Gilding would suggest you call the housing authorities. But the design concept behind it is pretty interesting and functional for minimalist design space. Created by Anna van der Lei, the wooden bath was inspired by the Finnish saunas which have two rooms, the sauna itself and a dressing room. The wooden bath represents the feeling and smell of the sauna, a place where you clean yourself and relax. But unlike a traditional bath, the Badkast, as is so named, does not have a fixed position, rather you select the environment in which you spend your daily ablusions. This is also made possible by the double opening doors on both sides of the Badkast, which subsequently also allows you the total peace of total seclusion or absolute exhibitionism. For van der Lei, the Badkast brings together the Finnish tradition of changing clothes, bathing, and being at peace wit hthe environment.

The Self-Drying Dish. Ok, so this isn’t necessarily about minimalist space either. Don’t judge a girl, she’s got reasons for this one. Counter space is limited in a galley kitchen and dish drainers take up one of two spaces, counter space or sink space. And frankly, they’re ugly. Even those wooden drainers, though are a marked improvement, receive no love from Gilding. That leaves only one place to dry ones dishes — the dishwasher. Though Perera originally designed the dish to be a single one for daily use that doesn’t need a drying rack, even with a whole set of these, though taking up some counter space, reduces the used surface area and makes a nice display of pretty dishes.

So sitting on the Mona Lisa may seen as sacrilege to some, but ponder this for but a moment. The saucy would your outside dwelling (a.k.a before HGTV the patio) be with a beuatiful reproduction piece of art by one of the master. Then imagine how cool you’ll be when a sudden abundance of guests take over said patio and fill all the seating, but still there are more asses to be sat, and you, the gracious host that you are, pull down your masterpiece reproduction and turn it into a chair. Ok, so its preposterously silly, but frankly so is most cool furniture design. By Korean designer Kwang Hoo Lee.

But if sitting someone’s fat ass on the Mona Lisa is just too much to handle, you could try on Dror Benshetrit’s cantilevered chair, which is a much more simplistic, elegant wood panelled wall hanging.

And what could be better than this….

Sure this bed is like a childhood dream come true, but think of the space logistics of the Beanock. It hangs, which means it’s removable. This bed would be the perfect thing for that roommate that you have to have but really hate having because their room is really meant to be your office. Put this bad boy up and you can have your office and hide all traces of their dwelling space by one quick unlatching of some hooks and a shove in a closet. Brilliant!

Link: Today and Tomorrow | Anna van der Lei treehugger | Le Beanock