A Home is 'Never Too Small'

Although we live in a world where excess is revered, where we’re constantly subject to ‘grand’ designs and the scale at which celebrities live, there’s a new trend that encourages living on a smaller footprint. Never Too Small is a Melbourne based media company dedicated to micro living, asserting that small is okay, small is good, that small can be better, not just for Earth, but even our lifestyles.

As the global population increases exponentially, urban overcrowding will become more and more of a problem. Fortunately, one way to combat this is through considered design and the creative arrangement of space. Living in proximity to a metropolitan area often leads to greater opportunities, employment and prosperity, and for these reasons, the large majority of the global population chooses, and will continue to choose the urban lifestyle.

But how we approach this lifestyle choice, how we design our inner worlds to suit our external environments takes forward thinking and considered design. Never Too Small curates and features architects and designers and their groundbreaking tiny projects. Be it studios, micro-apartments, or projects that encompass and encourage sustainable living. The principles these architects and designers adhere to, provide an adaptable dwelling for their clients and current occupants, but also a framework for the future of urban design.

The entire YouTube channel presents as a moving moodboard for smart design, clever storage solutions and is testament to the fact we need to make use of what we’ve got, making more from less. This inspiring world collates the many ways architects and designers are able to transform the way we live and even improve our quality of life by enhancing our relationships to space and milieu.

One such example is a 40sqm cabin known as ‘The Pod,’ built by travel writer Alice Hansen who returns to the space between assignments. Inspired by her Danish heritage and built with local materials, it features clever elements that add a sense of space and luxury, leaving out the rest. The vertical weatherboard cabin sits on a hill, peering down through native trees over the Dodges Ferry shoreline in Tasmania. Its floor to ceiling windows take no less advantage of the view than an ordinary sized home.

Resources saved on additional materials are redirected toward rare, personally meaningful luxuries. A custom built lounge made from hydrawood timber and a sculptural fireplace designed by a local blacksmith. The flame-inspired fireplace is the focal point in the open plan interior, adding a level of spaciousness and opulence you wouldn’t expect from a 40sqm cabin. Additionally, a two person pine bathtub sits on the deck outside the entry, adding another luxury that contradicts associations that come to mind with the word ‘small.’

‘The Pod’ is a reminder that small, when done right, isn’t small at all. It’s synonymous with the concept of ‘essentialism;’ keeping what matters and foregoing spaces that might invite clutter, or never truly be lived in. If space shapes the way we live, ‘The Pod’ is a beautiful demonstration of consciously designing not just a home, but a life. A space that encourages or enhances your ideal lifestyle, rather than creating arbitrary spaces. For Alice, it gives her an income as an AirBnB while she’s on a travel assignment and the perfect sized base for her lifestyle, when she returns.

The Never Too Small channel is an archive of inspiration. There’s something for everyone, and something we can experiment with in our own spaces. The channel and their recent publication of the same name have said their intention is to “offer hope and inspiration for a future of our cities and their citizens in which sustainability and style, comfort and affordability can co-exist.”

A home is never too small.

To view more from Never Too Small, you can head to their Youtube channel here. You can discover more ways individuals and groups are developing initiatives for smaller-footprint living and sustainable architecture on Urth Magazine.