Presented in 2023: On Sufficiency in Small Housing Spaces
Each year, the series Vorgestellt. Basler Architektinnen und Architekten is hosted in Basel by the S AM – Swiss Architecture Museum in collaboration with the Basel section of the Swiss Society of Architects (BSA). Since 2014, the program has invited local practices to present not only projects but also their broader architectural position. The aim is to spark reflection on the discipline itself rather than simply showcase completed works.
The 2023 edition took place at the recently renovated Theatersaal Berufsfachschule, organized by Shadi Rahbaran (BSA Basel) and moderated by Andreas Ruby (Director of S AM). Our office, Gwendoline Eveillard Architecture, was invited alongside Studio Balthasar Wirz and Wallimann Reichen Architekten.
Rethinking Adequacy in Housing
For our presentation, we explored the theme of sufficiency in small housing spaces. The discussion was framed by a comparison between Switzerland and France:
- In Basel, the average apartment size in 2022 was 52.7 m², with a rising demand for larger units (data from 2023).
- In Paris, the opposite trend is visible: apartments have been shrinking for decades, averaging 48.4 m² in 2022 compared to 64.7 m² in 1970. Nearly half of the housing stock now consists of very small units (data from 2023).
This means that in dense cities like Paris, people often have to live in smaller spaces, which typically offer less comfort and functionality. In less constrained areas, surface areas are considerably increased to achieve an acceptable level of functionality.
These contrasting contexts raise the same questions:
- How can architecture respond when space is too limited to meet contemporary needs?
- How can a small space offer the same functionality as a space twice its size?
Three Strategies for Doing More with Less
We presented three refurbishment projects that approached sufficiency through compact, flexible, and reversible design:
1. The Cavity Bathroom (Paris, 36 m²)
A missing bathroom was inserted as a “cavity” within a load-bearing wall. By treating it as both room and circulation, with reversible partitions, the apartment can shift layouts—functioning either as a one-bedroom flat or two small studios.
The trick has been to not only treat this new function as a room, but also as a circulation, and most of all, as a reversible space.
It is a reference to Paul Virilio and Claude Parent's "Circulation Habitable." By this, they meant replacing stairs with ramps or inclined surfaces that can be used both for circulation and other purposes.
It's a way of using a space as the cradle of multiple resources: in this example, it's about multifunctional rooms, designed as devices, compactness, and also rather low-tech gestures.
In this apartment, there is a playful way to address antagonisms, on servant spaces and served spaces, on mass and void, fixed and mobile furniture, on the relation between circulation and functions. The reversibility of the bathroom into a corridor here allows alternative layouts of the apartments, in which the living-room can become a distinct bedroom for guests, with their own access to the facilities. It allows the division of the apartment into two small studios with shared kitchen-bathroom.
2. The Ribbon Cabinet (Paris, 60 m²)
. Here, walls were replaced by a long piece of multifunctional furniture acting as a flexible spine. Like a Swiss Army knife, it accommodates shifting uses over time, challenging the fixed relationship between rooms and functions.
This observation stems from the fact that not every use requires its own space. A space can accommodate different uses at different times through spatial transformation. This proposal is also inspired by Gilles Deleuze's idea of "the Fold." One can think of space through its dynamism and interconnectedness: space can be seen less as a static and enclosed form, and more as an open, dynamic, fluid one. Space can be reshaped to evolve over time, depending on the needs.
3. The Central Block (Paris, 56 m²)
A customized cabinet wrapped around the toilet core transformed wasted circulation into usable space. Serving simultaneously as bookcase, wardrobe, and niche-bed, it choreographs daily life while compacting functions.
Sufficiency as Sustainability
Sufficiency is not about scarcity but about making existing spaces more resourceful. It invites us to reconsider domestic programs, embrace multifunctionality and flexibility, and imagine an architecture of movement— dynamicand adaptable rather than static.
The Vorgestellt platform provided an invaluable opportunity to share this perspective and to debate how architects can respond creatively to the challenges of limited space—building a culture of sufficiency as a foundation for sustainable living.
This is an apartment in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, right on the border between the new Avenue de France district, a business district with residential towers, and the old working-class district of Tolbiac. This is a 36m² apartment, organized with a 2-room layout, a load-bearing wall in the middle, and no bathroom—just toilets.
Creating a missing but yet essential functional room required taking some space from the small bedroom or the kitchen. Ideally, one wouldn't even create another room as the surfaces were already so small. The bathroom has been added in the least invasive way possible: as a cavity between two walls... as a cavity within one big thick wall. This cavity would contain every required sanitary equipment: shower + toilets + basin sink + storage and even washing machine.
The trick has been to not only treat this new function as a room, but also as a circulation, and most of all, as a reversible space.
It is a reference to Paul Virilio and Claude Parent's "Circulation Habitable." By this, they meant replacing stairs with ramps or inclined surfaces that can be used both for circulation and other purposes.
Here, two doors are placed opposite each other, at a very precise distance from one another, in order to create a continuous partition wall that conceals part of the bathroom. In this case, when opened, the doors conceal the most intimate area of a bathroom: the toilet and shower. This intimate area of the bathroom is thus treated like a closet.
Sufficiency means doing more with less.
It's a way of using a space as the cradle of multiple resources: in this example, it's about multifunctional rooms, designed as devices, compactness, and also rather low-tech gestures.
In this apartment, there is a playful way to address antagonisms, on servant spaces and served spaces, on mass and void, fixed and mobile furniture, on the relation between circulation and functions. The reversibility of the bathroom into a corridor here allows alternative layouts of the apartments, in which the living-room can become a distinct bedroom for guests, with their own access to the facilities. It allows the division of the apartment into two small studios with shared kitchen-bathroom.
Here is a different approach to sufficiency—redefining the layout through customized furniture—with a furniture/mobile ribbon applied to a refurbishment project. In this 60m² apartment, the client wanted to remove as many walls as possible to create larger rooms.
The main feature is a long changing cabinet, a piece of furniture that contains a multitude of changing functions.
The ribbon-furniture challenges the relationship between room and function as well. The rooms are undefined, but the furniture—moving walls—contain the uses. This unfolding ribbon is like a Swiss Army knife.
Sufficiency here comes with this idea: uses do not need to be provided at the same time in an apartment, but can happen alternatively, only when needed. Not every use needs its own space. A space can accommodate different uses at different times by spatial transformation.
This proposal is also inspired by Gilles Deleuze's idea of "the Fold." One can think of space through its dynamism and interconnectedness: space can be seen less as a static and enclosed form, and more as an open, dynamic, fluid one. Space can be reshaped to evolve over time, depending on the needs.
In this oddly shaped apartment, there is a huge waste of space: out of 56m², 19m² were merely circulation space.
Here again, the built-in customized cabinet central block played a central role in making better use of the available space. A customized closet wraps around the toilets and is sculpted to create a hierarchy of space. While choreographing the circulation, this element shelters and contains several uses adapted to the three rooms it touches: the entrance, the living room, and the office. On one side is a bookcase, in the center a dressing room, the toilets, and on the other side, a niche. The latter can be transformed at will into a bedroom unit.
Sufficiency is a milestone to pursue on each project, to address, as an Architect, the concept of sustainability. Sufficiency aligns with sustainability by encouraging an economy of means and a flexible attitude towards uses and programming. It requires attention to materials, precise knowledge of construction, and a deep connection to craftsmanship and resources. This also relies on understanding and connecting, as much as possible, a wide interprofessional network.
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