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第 48 卷 第 7 期
2021 年 7 月
湖南大学学报（自然科学版）
Journal of Hunan University（Natural Sciences）
Vol. 48. No. 7.
July 2021
Received: April 16, 2021 / Revised: May 14, 2021 / Accepted: June 10, 2021 / Published: July 31, 2021
Fund Project: Small House Initiative partially financial support by Thammasat University, Thailand
About the authors: Boonsap Witchayangkoon, Winai Raksuntorn (PhD), Department of Civil Engineering, Thammasat School of
Engineering, Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus, Thailand; Khiensak Seangklieng, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Thammasat
University, Rangsit Campus, Thailand; Sayan Sirimontree, Department of Civil Engineering, Thammasat School of Engineering,
Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus, Thailand; Ahmad Sanusi Hassan, Yasser Arab, School of Housing, Building & Planning,
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia; Krittiya Lertpocasombut, Department of Civil Engineering, Thammasat School of Engineering,
Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus, Thailand; Kritsada Anantakarn, Division of Civil Engineering and Construction Management,
Uthenthawai Campus, Rajamongala University of Technology Tawan-ok, Bangkok, Thailand; Chanachai Thongchom, Suraparb Keawsawasvong,
Department of Civil Engineering, Thammasat School of Engineering, Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus, Thailand
Corresponding author Boonsap Witchayangkoon, wbооn@engr.tu.аc.th
Open Access Article
Being Small: Elements and Observations of Small Houses
Boonsap Witchayangkoon1*, Winai Raksuntorn1, Khiensak Seangklieng2, Sayan Sirimontree1,
Ahmad Sanusi Hassan3, Yasser Arab3, Krittiya Lertpocasombut1, Kritsada Anantakarn4, Chanachai
Thongchom1, Suraparb Keawsawasvong1
1 Department of Civil Engineering, Thammasat School of Engineering, Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus, Thailand
2 Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus, Thailand
3 School of Housing, Building & Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
4 Division of Civil Engineering and Construction Management, Uthenthawai Campus, Rajamongala University of Technology
Tawan-ok, Bangkok, Thailand
Abstract: House is a basic need for people to stay. In competing societies, people can afford only small
houses, making them cheaper and easier for maintenance. This article discusses elements of small houses, including
house area, construction materials, stair, vertical space optimization, spatial arrangement and space management,
multipurpose areas with collapsible-expandable multipurpose furniture, colors, lightings, windows, and mirrors, and
privacy of the small houses and occupants. This work gives two modern urban triangle houses as examples, one in
Korea and one in Japan, for small house observations.
Keywords: small house design, residential house, triangle house, sustainable house, small dwellings.
小：小房子的要素和观察
摘要：房子是人们居住的基本需求。在竞争激烈的社会中，人们只能买得起小房子，这
使得它们更便宜且更易于维护。这篇文章讨论了小房子的元素，包括房屋面积、建筑材料、
楼梯、垂直空间优化、空间布置和空间管理、具有可折叠扩展多功能家具的多功能区域、颜
色、照明、窗户和镜子，以及小户型的隐私。房屋和居住者。本作品以两栋现代都市三角屋
为例，一栋在韩国，一栋在日本，用于小户型观察。
关键词：小房子设计，住宅，三角屋，可持续的房子，小住宅。
1. Introduction
A modern family comprises just three to four
members, including dad, mom, and one to two kids.
For the economic aspect of both developed and
developing countries, urban land is highly costly due to
continuous rise, especially in high-density populations
and business areas. People can own a smaller piece of
land. Their houses are smaller because it allows
surviving in big-city society. Even people with bigger
lands may want a small house to have more empty
spaces for other activities. People living in rural areas
may also want small houses. The goal of this study is to
discuss the elements of modern small houses.
68
2. Literature Review
Wilson & Boehland [1] studied trends in single-
family house building in the USA and suggested
downsizing houses to improve quality and resource
efficiency. A small house built to only moderate
energy-performance standards uses greatly less heating
and cooling energy.
Baeissa& Hassan [2] conducted a habitability study
on low-cost house designs of modern and traditional
mid-rise house units in the City of Mukalla, Yemen.
The result showed that the satisfaction levels of the
respondents who live in traditional houses were higher
than those in modern houses.
Witchayangkoon et al. [3] surveyed to learn an
after-stay satisfaction of residents who stay in
prefabricated concrete houses in Thailand. They found
that noise seems to be the most concern of the
townhouses’ residents.
Ford & Gomez-Lanier [4] reviewed the tiny house
movement/communities under the three-pronged
approach to sustainability, including environmental,
social, and economic aspects for a holistic
sustainability examination of the tiny house movement.
Studies on homeownership in low-cost houses have
been conducted in many countries such as Penang,
Malaysia [5].
UN Environment and the Yale University’s Center
for Ecosystems in Architecture present an eco-friendly
and affordable tiny house with an area of 22 m2 (200
ft2) [6]. The house has a loft or pullout bed with hidden
storage and condensed amenities (e.g., a kitchen). The
house is designed to maximize the space to live in.
This article presents the elements of modern small
houses, and two examples are given as observations.
3. Elements of Small Houses
3.1. House Areas
Small houses have house area 40-100 m2 (430-1080
ft2), medium-size houses 100-300 m2 (430-3230 ft2),
large-size houses 300-800m2 (3230-8600 ft2), and
extra-large houses more than 800m2 (8600 ft2). Of
course, tiny houses [7] will have an area of fewer than
40 m2 (430 ft2).
3.2. Construction Materials
Small houses may use strong, modern, lightweight
materials, as these materials tend to be smaller but with
the same or better functionalities and engineering
features. In the view of sustainability, with lightweight
from roofing, walling, flooring eco-modern materials
and smaller sizes, the total weight of the small house
becomes a lot lighter, thus reducing the foundation and
the entire construction cost and time.
3.3. Stairs
A stair is an important element to move people from
one floor to another. Stairs come in different
shapes/styles. Most stairs take spaces about 5m2 or
more, including the stair-landing area. For small
houses, smaller stairs give more room.
(a) (b)
Fig. 1 (a) A small area EeStair [8]; (b) A combination of stair and living space [9]
A 1m2 area spiral twist steel stair has been invented
to save space (see Fig. 1 (a)). For children, they may
need to practice and get used to this type of stairs.
One good option is to combine stairs with living
space, such as the example in Fig. 1 (b) of the Tread
Machiya house, Japan.
3.4. Vertical Space Optimization
Taking most of the vertical space makes small
houses effective uses of resources. Most small houses
have loft spaces for storage and sleeping. Loft height
may vary in the range of 1.2-1.8m (4-6 ft). Varieties of
modern wall-mounted box shelves and racks help using
vertical spaces more effectively. Many modern
materials are strong, and lightweights are making it
possible to use vertical spaces effectively.
3.5. Spatial Arrangement and Space Management
The house needs to accommodate the land area as
well as the needs of the houses’ owners. With good
design, the house areas can look spacious. With limited
spaces of small houses, the architectural-based spatial
arrangement of functional parts of the house should
bring the house to its full utilization. Space
management will depend greatly on interior design.
Some houses have put drawers in the area under the
69
stair (Fig. 2), some put a washing machine, and some
make it into a restroom, while some make it to a reading space.
Fig. 2 Storage drawers under the stair (created by the authors)
3.6. Multipurpose Areas with Collapsible-
Expandable Multipurpose Furniture
Attentions to furniture spatial arrangements are
important matters, including types, styles, textures, and
colors. Collapsible furniture is helpful due to its
foldable-expandable capability. Multipurpose furniture
help keeping up more spaces, as furniture serves more
functions by simply turning or adjusting parts of the
furniture (Fig. 3). At a different time, areas can be
adopted from one activity to the other. For example, the
bedding area, after the beds are folded, the area can
make into a living room.
Fig. 3 Multipurpose chair/desk furniture [10]
3.7. Colors, Lightings, Windows &Mirrors
Due to the small space of each functional part of the
house, the element of colors, lightings, windows, and
mirrors play important roles in small house design.
Bright color gives a more environmentally friendly
atmosphere. Blue gives cold and cool feelings, while
red catches attention, and bright yellow gives
expansive feelings and makes the object more distinct
[11].
Fig. 4 Color spectrum of Plutchik-wheel of emotion (created by the
authors)
White sometimes can make bored and distracted
with wandering thoughts. Light creamy color produces
more soothe-loving feelings. Windows let natural light
and air entering the house will make the house more
liveable.
The uses of colors, lightings, and mirrors impact the
emotions, cognitions, and behaviors of the dwellers.
Selections of right choices of colors, lightings, and
mirrors are important as the brain reflects different
colors differently. The color spectrum of the Plutchik-
wheel of emotion exhibits joy, trust, fear, surprise,
sadness, anticipation, anger, and disgust, each
corresponding to a color level (Fig. 4). Combinations
of different colors, lightings & mirrors can give mixed
feelings and behaviors. Compared with Fig. 2, Fig. 5
gives a calmer feeling as light blue/green gives colder
and cooler feelings.
70
Fig. 5 A calmer feeling due to changes in color and lighting (created by the authors)
3.8. Privacy of the Small Houses and Occupants
Like other houses, small houses' privacy can attain
and give a sense of security by using architecture and
interior privacy design. Trees and curtains can help
with visual and territorial privacy. DIY privacy window
film or self-adhesive static-cling glass stickers are
helpful with opaque capability allowing light to pass
through.
If the family lived in a small house is crowded or
overcrowded, individual personal space may greatly
reduce; thus, the occupants' privacy is difficult to
preserve in the small house.
4. USM Studio Projects of Small Houses
At the School of Housing, Building & Planning,
Universiti Sains Malaysia, architect students are asked
to design projects. Fig.6 and 7 show three students'
small house design projects.
Fig. 6 A small house design by Chong Chin Xin, USM (used with
permission)
Fig. 6 shows a simple small compact house design
having an area of 50-60 m2, with a bedroom on the loft
floor and everything else on the first floor. Fig. 7 shows
a more compact modern house design with a house
area of 50-75 m2.
Fig. 7 A small house design by Kelvin Ah Kian, USM (used with
permission)
5. Observation Cases
5.1. The Case of a Japanese Triangle House
The famous Japanese architect Kota Mizuishi
(Mizuishi Architect Atelier Company) designed a small
two-story house in 2010 (see Fig.8. This house is very
small, built on the acute angle triangle land in western
Tokyo, Japan. Fig.9, the site area is 52m2, building area
29m2 with a total floor area of 55m2. The house was
nicely designed to give a comfy cozy environment. A
slide entrance door and many slide windows are
installed to keep up space. The bedroom is on the first
floor. Theliving & dining is set on the second floor with
big glass windows, thus allowing more space and can
see the scenery of the neighborhood. The window
screens allow fresh air to enter the house. The loft floor
provides more private space. The small balcony on the
second floor gives a broad scenery view, thus greater
feelings.
71
Fig. 8 Design of a small triangle wooden house in Tokyo, Japan
[12]
Fig. 9 The small triangle Japanese house after the construction and décor [12]
5.2. The Case of a Korea Triangle House
In the crowded town of Daemyeong-dong, Nam-gu,
Daegu Metropolitan City, South Korea, the famous
architect Hwang Kwang-Soo (the Inark Architecture
Office) designed a triangle three-story house to replace
the old one-story house (Fig. 10).
72
Fig. 10 The small three-story triangle Korea house with the
designed floor plan, after the construction and décor [13]
The house family has four members, including a
father, a mother, a daughter, and a son. The site area is
34m2, with a total building floor area of 84 m2. The
main skeleton is a steel structure frame (see Fig.10).
The first floor is a living room and kitchen facility. At
night, the living room is used as a bedroom for father
and mother. The second floor has two private rooms,
one room for the son with full utilization of the under-
stairs area, and the sharp end room is for the daughter
with a study desk to fit the sharp end. The third floor is
for general utilities, including cloth cleaning. There is a
small balcony for cloth hang drying. The stair goes
straight from the first floor to the third with a double
winder in the last part to go to the third floor. It is seen
that all windows are very small; this is for privacy
purposes.
6. Conclusion
Tiny houses do not suit everyone, rather suit and
fascinating for people who love being small and save
money and time. The house's area is smaller; thus, the
used resources to build the house are less, thus
lowering the construction cost, tax, and maintenance
costs. A small house also indicates self-sufficiency,
which in turn it provides social sustainability. This
article discusses the elements of small houses and
provided case studies.
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73
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