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Micro-apartment can be built in a carpark space

Lifestyle
6 years ago
2 minutes

Most apartments come with a parking spot. This parking spot comes with an apartment. That’s right – an apartment that fits perfectly into the minute space designed for a car has been invented.

Micro-apartments being erected in your local supermarket’s parking lot may seem like an improbable solution to the high-density living issue that many cities are facing. But this new micro-apartment does have some fascinating characteristics that raise questions about our current approach to apartment design, construction and living. 

The residential innovation, dubbed ‘Tikku’, was designed by Finnish architect Marco Casagrande of Casagrande Laboratory. It is constructed using stackable modules mounted on top of a sand box that counterweights the upward-rising home. ‘Tikku’ in fact translates to ‘stick’ from Finnish, earning its name from its skinny profile and the cross-laminated timber material used.

The entire Tikku occupies a footprint measuring just 2.5m by 5m and can be fully set up in the seemingly impossible short time of just one day. This puts the years and years most apartment developments take to be completed into perspective – although, sadly, Tikku is unable to boast a rooftop infinity pool, lavishly landscaped gardens and a fully equipped, on-site gym.

What the Tikku does have that luxury modern apartment developments don't is, of course, the flexibility to be picked up and relocated to greener grass as and when you please. So, if you think you’ve found the ideal spot to take up residence, pave paradise and put up a parking lot. Then all you need is a Tikku, a crane and a day.

And while it looks like it probably wouldn’t keep you safe and warm through an Australian winter, let alone a Finnish one, architects have assured us that the 20-centimeter-thick, cross-laminated timber requires no additional insulation to be effective in keeping out the cold.

Could this be the the starting point for a revolutionary architectural design solution to our high-density living problem? Watch this space. And definitely watch your car park space – it just might be occupied soon.

Read more lifestyle articles about apartment living here.