project history

The micro compact home is a development of the i-home, a 2.6m cube designed by Prof. Richard Horden together with his team of students and assistants at the Technical University in Munich from 2001.

Initial design stages included a collaboration between TUM and the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and the influence of classic Japanese tea house architecture, together with prefabrication methods, advanced concepts and technologies from Europe and Japan, helped defined the project's essential features.

The i-home was further progressed at TUM, and its function was tested in a mock-up which is still on display and in use at the University institute. Considerations on cluster assembly of the single units included implementation of student housing which led to a feasibility study funded by the Bavarian state.

In a further collaboration between the student welfare organisation Studentenwerk Muenchen, Horden Cherry Lee Architects in London and Haack Hoepfner Architekten in Munich, and with the sponsorship of O2 Germany, the first student housing village was started on site in 2005.

A series of artistic projects together with Dutch artist Marijke de Goey, the 'reed huis' and the 'light cubes' for the East Anglia Landmark competition, show natural elegance in combining art and architecture, integrating the micro compact home perfectly with sculptural elements that complement its scale and emphasize its presence.

Other spin-offs include the Tree Village and the Golden Cube, playing with landscape and location specific adaptation of the basic concept to prove its versatility in a number of environments and cultures.