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Architecture · Modular Housing · Self-initiated

Tiny House WM

A modular tiny house built from five module types that combine into twelve assemblies, from 24 m² to 90 m² — the same house, grown by insertion rather than extension.

Tiny House WM in a forest clearing in late golden light, the interior lit warm behind the glazed gables; one person inside with a cup, another walking toward the house through the grass

Client

Autoral

Location

Modular/Prototype — no fixed site

Category

Architecture · Modular Housing · Self-initiated
Year
2020
01. The idea

Tiny House WM starts from a refusal — that a small house has to be a compromise. One fixed plan, one size, take it or leave it. Instead the house is a kit. Five module types, each drawn to stand on its own and to be joined to any of the others.

The smallest configuration is 24 m². The largest is 90 m². Between those two numbers sits the same house, assembled differently.

02. The modules

The system is built on one width: 4 metres. The executive drawings of January 2020 fix three of the types. The 2x1 is a single 4 × 4 m volume on two levels, with a sleeping loft. The 3x1 stretches the same width to 4 × 6 m, on one level. The 3x2 joins a 4 × 6 m volume and a 4 × 4 m volume into an L of 8 × 6 m, on two levels. Because every volume shares the same width, any edge meets any edge.

From them come five residential types, named by their grid — 2x1, 2x2, 3x1, 3x2 and 3x3 — and twelve ways of assembling them. Different floor plans, different footprints, the same parts.

03. Growing by insertion

The house expands by insertion rather than extension. You do not stretch a wall or add a lean-to; you add another pre-designed module and the plan reorganises around it. A family that starts at 24 m² can reach 90 m² without the house ever being redrawn, and without the additions reading as additions.

Various sizes, for all types of family. That was the brief, and it was our own.

04. Drawn to build

The 2x1, the smallest, stacks a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom under a bedroom loft. The 3x2 puts a double-height kitchen, a living room and a bathroom on the ground floor, and two bedrooms with a second bathroom above.

It did not stop at a concept. The modules were carried through to executive documentation — layouts drawn at 1:50, technical disciplines including the hydraulic plan, sheets issued in January 2020.

05. From house to neighbourhood

The system was also tested at the scale of a settlement. A preliminary site plan arranges all five types along the edges of a block and in four inner clusters, threaded by a cross of internal paths, with support buildings at the entrance. The same parts, now making streets.

06. Where, when, with whom

Contest, self-initiated project, 2020. Architecture and design: Fernanda Algazal and Marina F. Alves. Architectural visualisation: Marina F. Alves.

Two Tiny House WM volumes glowing at dusk in a fog-filled mountain valley
Animation of the Tiny House WM modules assembling into a complete house
Two joined Tiny House WM modules at the edge of a pine forest at blue hour, the interior glowing warm through the glazed gables; one person reading on the step, another walking to the door
The two-bay Tiny House WM straight on in a meadow at dusk, pine forest and mist behind, lamps lit on both storeys
A single Tiny House WM module on the grass beside a lake at blue hour, someone at the table inside the lit glazing
The kitchen in the evening: one person chopping vegetables at the counter, another at the table talking to them, pines through the window
The living room at sunset: one person reading in an armchair, another at the glass with a hand on the frame, low sun through the full-height glazing
The bedroom under the timber roof in the morning: light from the skylight, mist and pines outside the window, someone tying their shoes on the edge of the bed
Board 01, module 2x1, 4.00 by 4.00 m: ground floor with living room, bathroom, kitchen and stair; upper floor with the sleeping loft over a double-height void
Board 02, module 3x1, 4.00 by 6.00 m on one storey: bedroom across the back, living room and bathroom in the middle, kitchen and round table at the glazed gable
Board 03, module 3x2, 8.00 by 6.00 m: double-height kitchen and dining, living room and stair below; main bedroom, bedroom 01 and a second bathroom above
Preliminary site plan of a Tiny House WM neighbourhood: the five module types along the edges of a block and in four inner clusters, threaded by internal paths
Animation of the 3x2 Tiny House WM rising from a cut plan to the finished pitched roof
Cutaway axonometric study of the Tiny House WM interior fit-out
Animation of a Tiny House WM gable filling in with its interior, module by module
Five axonometric diagrams showing the Tiny House WM modules combining into progressively larger assemblies
Two Tiny House WM volumes on a grassy slope as fog rolls down the pine hillside behind them
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