Can Less Room Make Room for the Elephant in the Room?

Abstract: Just north of Stockholm is a neighbourhood of wooden buildings, all of them a merge of three or four compact family homes placed carefully in the topography.This typology is challenging a housing stock dominated by the open plan. For several people living together, a sequence of smaller rooms, a raumplan, may instead be more functional, spatially varied, and flexible. The homes consist of rooms, niches, partitions, and lofts, separated by different materials and ceiling heights creating different ambiences, with some shared rooms to expand into or rent out. To further improve the spaces, I researched the movements dealing with making the most out of a smaller space, like minimalism and compact living, and used this to increase the feeling of space and the functionality. I hope the varied sequences of spaces give people the possibility of creating their own feeling of home.