Dwell January/February 2025

For more than a decade, I lived in a 375-square-foot apartment in Brooklyn. It wasn’t the cute “tiny house” you see on an HGTV show or in an endless wash of TikTok videos. It was, well, a small apartment that my partner and I made into a more than livable home. The Covid pandemic led to dueling Zoom calls in tight quarters, prompting an acute need for us to eventually size up, but I learned a lot about taking stock of how much space you really require—even if the answer is a bit more of it. The small spaces in this issue all ask a similar question: What is the right amount of space for how you want to live? Each answers it in much less than the roughly 2,411…

Aysia Stieb Photographer One Last Thing, p. 104 Aysia Stieb is no stranger to architectural photography, having documented buildings around the world. But what she really loves is getting up close to an object: “It’s a type of meditation. If I’m able to focus on something that’s in front of me—capturing the essence of something—I’m able to turn inward.” For her Dwell debut, she combined these two skill sets, staging an intimate photo shoot of a miniature replica of a temple for the One Last Thing section. “It was funny that I was shooting for Dwell and not doing an architectural shoot, but rather shooting this little building that’s one inch tall,” she says. Masanori Kaneshita Photographer “Narrow Approach,” p. 74 After graduating from Nihon University’s College of Art in…

“Thank you for bringing the light. Just wanted to reach out with appreciation. Because the world truly needs more light right now.”Chad Aiken-Zdroik Readers had strong reactions to our November/December 2024 issue, which arrived on newsstands the week after the U.S. presidential election, particularly William Hanley’s editor’s letter. Your letter about the American design issue gave me hope (and distraction sadly needed at this time). Your issues and the online features delve into the future in ways that are thoughtful and so relevant to the deeper concerns about how we want to live. The work you focus on seems to me long-term, sustainable in that way. Please keep it up. LYNNE CULP William—You write the opening of your letter as if there are no conservatives who appreciate good modern design.…

We have one in the third bedroom/office/craft room. Awesome to have it when needed. Just make sure you get a mattress that won’t sag after being vertical most of the time. @warped_ by_bsg Ultimate small space workhorse! We have one in both of our cabins and they’re still A+, no sag either. @theeast ernthredbovillage Yes, the vertical mattress sag is real. We had an extra space above our garage and used it as a playroom for the kids when little. We had two twin beds and one queen Murphy for overflow guests. They were magical, multipurpose rooms. Need storage for bedding and pillows. @rochelle.yvr Love them. It means every room can be a bedroom when needed but utilized as something else when not. It’s a clever use of space. @becksonts…

The Clothes Hanger Some historians credit the first clothes-hanger-type object to Thomas Jefferson, who is said to have devised a clothes-hanging contraption for a closet at Monticello. But what’s widely recognized as the earliest inspiration for the modern hanger was a rounded wire coat hook invented by O. A. North in 1869, which was improved upon by Albert J. Parkhouse in the early 1900s. Parkhouse, an employee of a Michigan wire company, showed up at work one morning to find all the coat hooks occupied, so he fashioned a wire hanger with a bent hook at the top that could be hung from a rod, allowing more coats to be stored at once. The Folding Cabinet Bed In the late 19th century, inventor Sarah E. Goode’s novel solution to the urbanite challenge…

SMALL SPACE FURNITURE IS GETTING EVEN BETTER For ages, architects and designers have been fascinated by the puzzle of small spaces. Visionaries like Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand, Eileen Gray, and Frank Lloyd Wright pursued projects that may have felt experimental at the time, but ultimately laid the groundwork for future design for tight interiors. And the Tetris of it all is always evolving. The first thing to consider, according to Ecuadoran architect Juan Alberto Andrade, is to understand that “small scale has no waste or, rather, it has little margin for error.” That makes selecting furnishings that both look good and function well a true challenge. We talked to designers who have solved remarkable spatial organization puzzles and got tips—and products—for how to live small and love it.…