Your Home...in 2.65 cubic meters

...or about 8.7 cubic feet.

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During my Science Channel binge, Beyond Tomorrow featured a segment on Micro-Compact Home discussing the O2 Village at the Technical University of Munich. The O2 Village is basically a student residential area consisting of six Micro-Compact houses.

I would really like to live in one of these homes. I know it sounds crazy, but restricting the amount of space in your living area can actually save you from bringing junk and clutter into your home. In fact, you'll think at least twice about grabbing that cheap swag from those technical conventions (Microsoft, I'm talking about you).

I also think that another reason why I like Micro-Compact House is because having a tight space appeals to my inner need to constantly hide and observe. :)

This type of housing is only suitable for one resident, and I wish that my graduate student housing back at Florida State University have this type of setup. Though I liked Alumni Village, the whole area really is just a hole in the ground. The townhouses and the duplexes have terrible insulation, and everything is quite old and dirty. The only reason students live there is due to cheap rent, the close proximity to the Engineering building, and the location isolates the residents from main campus football season turmoil, making the area ideal for students with children.

The units in the O2 Village are extremely energy efficient due to good insulation, and almost all the materials used to construct the units are recyclable. It is also the type of housing that doesn't shut you from the world, as the designer specifically wanted the resident to use his outside environment as a part of his home.

The timber frame is clad in anodized aluminum. Like a car, it has about an eighth-of-an-inch gap between the aluminum sheets, which gives it a very crisp appearance from the outside. The mast is for attaching solar panels without affixing them directly to the roof. The color of the exterior is slightly lighter than the interior, which means you can see out without a lot of reflection of the inside, and when you are outside you can’t see in very clearly. This is a trick also used by car and aircraft designers.

Sascha Kletzsch/courtesy Micro Compact Home

Dennis Gilbert/courtesy Micro Compact Home

Sascha Kletzsch/courtesy Micro Compact Home

This hypothetical clustered arrangement is intended for student housing or out-of-town visitors who need a home in the city. Its structure is made up of small steel columns that echo the surrounding trees.

Courtesy Micro Compact Home

Other uses for such a unit includes a portable home for traveling businessmen and people living in expensive areas (e.g. New York City). Obviously, the O2 is not recommended for family units greater than one person.