Kleinwohnung | Carl Fieger

Germany | 1931 | hard use

Description

Built as a prototype of a minimal flat of 40m2 for the Berlin building exhibition in 1931, Carl Flieger's Kleinwohnung can be transformed from a two bedroom flat at night into living and dining room plus study space during the day.

The main mechanisms with which this transformation is produced are foldable beds and sliding walls. The 1.90 by 0.90 metre beds can be folded back into a wall recess of 35 cm depth and 2.00 metres height. The beds, thereby, more or less disappear (their lower surface comes flush with the wall) and make space for other activities to happen. The bathroom is reduced to the size of a shower cubicle, which is pushed against the wall that also contains the bed recesses (one to each side of the shower room) and located in the centre of the apartment, thereby suggesting a division of the space into two equal parts. In order to create more privacy between the two spaces that can be turned into bedrooms at night, folding walls are employed for a heightened degree of enclosure. One of these walls can be pulled from one side of the shower room towards the entrance to the apartment. The other folding wall is connected to the opposite side of the shower room and can be pulled towards the facade, whereby a small single bedroom is established. As the shower room has a door to each side, it can be accessed from both rooms without disturbing other occupants of the apartment.

The space in front of the smaller bedroom can be used, day and night, as a small dining area and provides, together with the kitchen, a WC and the shower room the only fixed points in this scenario.

References

Kähler, G., 'Kollektive Struktur, individuelle Interpretation', ARCH+, 1989, pp. 38-45.