Buenos Aires Architect’s micro apartment - 32sqm 344sqft

This apartment is located in SA Vedra in Buenos Aires city Argentita in Buenos Aires. The cost per square meter is really high. We wanted to design good affordable housing that allows people to get into the market. There are 14 people living in Hintana, mainly young people and couples. And of course, I'm one of those 14 people. SA Vedra is a neighborhood located in the northern part of Buenos Aires city. It's 4 1/2 kilometers from downtown Buenos Aires. It's characterized by its green areas, biking lines and all the public spaces. And it's also a really quiet neighborhood in a really busy city. Before we started the construction, there was a one store house that it was really damaged and no one lived there. The land has almost 200 square meters, so it's a small lot where we located 9 apartments of 32 square meters, also three apartments of 44 square meters. The facade is clad in a metal structure with wires and plant boxes to allow the plants to grow in the facade and complete it. In the ground floor we have the access storage rooms for every apt, a bike parking lot and car parking lot. Also, we wanted to design a building where residents can interact and build a close community. On the top of the building we designed the multi purpose community room that is also linked to a green roof, a swimming pool, common areas on the rooftop that was designed to involve people and to make stronger the community feeling. The design idea for the apartment is to have a flexible space to be easily personalized but still have all the needs for a comfortable living. We condense the kitchen, bathroom, storage and sleeping area to one side of the apartment. With that solution, we managed to free up the larger space of the apartment for the residents to personalize and furnish the space as they want. When you walk into the apartment, on the right side, you find a wide storage wall. We use bifold doors for the bathroom and kitchen. They doesn't consume much space when you open them. The three meter concrete ceiling also offers generous storage about the kitchen and bathroom. In the kitchen, we have everything we need. We have an electric cook top, a refrigerator, an oven and all the storage spaces. The countertops are composed by small parts of recycled stones. It's really easy to manage on the construction and it's also really easy to clean, and we used Gray tiles for the splashback. The bathroom has a floating bench top with storage underneath and the mirror running along the length of the bathroom. To get the illusion of a bigger space, we also continued with the use of tiles, in this case green. In the other wall of the bathroom, the sleeping space is above the wardrobe. We have a hanging space in the pull out wardrobe with drawers. Also, one of the drawers was designed as a step to get into the bed. The bed area can fit a queen size bed. On one side of the bed there is a wall of shelving where I can display all my personal belongings and books or charge my cell phone. For example, I can sit on the bed to read a book and enjoy the views from the balcony. It's really important to have access to the outside in these tiny apartments. Every apartment has a balcony with a full size sliding door so we can expand the use of the apartment to the outside. In the balconies, we use a waterproof stretch canvas for undercover and to guarantee the privacy between neighbors. We also have another window about the sliding doors to get more natural light into the apartment. It also extends the views from within the apartment. In Buenos Aires, the cost per square meter is really high. This kind of feeling allows people to get access to a house in a central area, but also gets another opportunity by sharing as a community bigger spaces so we can put together small apartments and really generous common areas to make life better for everyone. Thanks for watching. To receive updates on our latest episodes, please subscribe and click the notification bell. And if you're an architect or designer with a project we could feature, please share it with us at nevertoosmall.com/submissions.