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Nice Cube for Alternative Living

By Rain Noe - February 10, 2011

in Object Culture

Following yesterday's white storage apartment comes another innovative design for living: A "compact mobile dwelling cube" within a large loft apartment. The Bay Area Feng Shui expert who commissioned it needed a way to cleanly separate his accoutrements of personal living from the rest of his 1,100-square-foot loft, which he uses as a classroom for roughly 30 students. The solution, designed by architecture firm Space Flavor, is this rollable steel-framed cube, eight feet per side.

The relatively tiny structure is actually two storys: Downstairs is a sleeping compartment and study area (arranged in a yin-yang pattern seen from plan view), upstairs is a meditation loft. Roller shades can close off the "downstairs" compartments, and when lit from within the cube resembles a giant lantern. The bottom step of the integrated stairway features a shoe/slipper drawer so your filthy shoes never touch the cube's flooring. And the entire thing's on wheels, so the Feng Shui guy can rotate the structure to face in particular directions to accede to the demands of his, you know, barbarian gods.

One thing we found very cool is that the cube is designed so that its constituent parts all fit through a standard doorway, and the entire thing can be assembled, and disassembled, using regular tools.

The Times has got a feature on the Cube with more photos up here.

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Brian

13 years ago

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Looks like, in the spirit of minimalism, he's designed away other people.
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JP

13 years ago

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It looks like the Feng Shui expert doesn't expect overnight guests. Ever.

That bed would be great, if he were 12.

But really, $20k, that looks like chop shop garage work...
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Russ

13 years ago

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I just bought 240' of 1.75"steel tube for $300. Delivered. I have a hard time believing $11,700 for labor. I don't think he really waived his fees.
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MD

13 years ago

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NYT also covered this home:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/garden/10cube.html

Does anyone else think that $20K for the construction of this is a little inflated?
"The open-wall design required a steel frame, which was the costliest element in the cube, at $12,000; the plywood and plexiglass for the walls and the woodwork, including the hidden cabinetry, cost $6,600, and the electrical work was $1,400."

The article states that the architect also waived his fees as he was one of the Feng Shui guy's students.
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