From the Australian Financial Post is the story of this architect designed 27 square meters (that’s 290 square feet) apartment which sold for $600,000 Australian dollars, roughly $571,000 in Canadian dollars. The unit is in Darlinghurst, two kilometers away from downtown Sydney Australia.
In an art deco building and bought in 2013 for $340,000. Brad Swartz converted this studio apartment into a separated one bedroom by making the kitchen into a platformed bedroom and incorporating the kitchen into the living room. He used a functional folding wall system to separate the two areas. That wall also provides storage, a desk, and additional light into the bedroom space.
Mr. Swartz entered his renovation of his very small space in a design competition and won an award for the best apartment in 2015. That award led to many new projects, and a renewed interest on how to capitalize very small spaces. When Mr. Swartz put the apartment on the market in 2020, he had over sixty groups come to look at it, with a young first time buyer making the purchase.
While there are examples of apartments being thoughtfully outfitted at larger sizes, this design was relatively unique in a space that is less than 300 square feet. As Mr Swartz concludes “I hope in the future there will be more results like this when people actively engage in designing beautiful small or large apartments or inner-city dwellings without compromise.”
You can click on the YouTube video below for a tour of the small space.
image: idesignarch
That works because you don’t have to fold up/down your bed every day.