At first glance, it is just a door atop a 1950s residential building in the centre of Rotterdam. Behind it unfolds a complete, self-contained world—compact in size, yet expansive in experience. The Cabanon is a fully equipped 6.89m² apartment—likely the smallest in the world, certainly the smallest with a spa—created by adaptively reusing an unused attic storage space.
The Cabanon is an experiment in voluntary reduction, never understood as austerity, but as an “epicurean” minimalism—a search for modest joy.
The inside dimensions of the Cabanon are H: 3 m, W: 1,97m, L: 3,6m. It has a 6m² window overlooking the city. It is divided into four fixed spaces, rather than relying on temporary partitions, so each space can be fully functional. The spaces are radically different in height, material, and colour: a 3m-high living room with kitchen, a 1.14m-high bedroom with plenty of storage, a toilet with rain shower, and a spa with infrared saunas and a whirlpool bath. Each space is dimensioned according to the height and width required to perform its function, turning the apartment into a temple in the proportions of its owners. This principle of precise calibration extends from the body to the scale of everyday objects. The bedroom was designed with a specific mattress in mind; the spa according to the bathtub length; the kitchen based on the mini-fridge depth, in order to avoid the need of customized objects, but rather the other way around: the Cabanon would adapt to standard and affordable products.
The Cabanon takes its name from the eponymous cabin of Le Corbusier at the Côte d'Azur. Like the Le Corbusier cabin, the Cabanon of Rotterdam has been conceived by the same architects who will use it: Beatriz and Bernd. It is 6,89 m², half the size of Le Corbusier’s unit and – unlike his Cabanon – fully autonomous and designed for a couple.
What initially seemed illogical for a space of this size proved essential: vivid colours allow the mini-apartment to “grow” and unfold as a carefully composed, narrative sequence of spaces, almost cinematic in character. Within just 7m², colour creates space where none existed. The shower is wrapped in blue mosaic; the living room in coral tiles; the spa lined with black marble; and the bedroom in mint green.
In an extremely compact space like the Cabanon, detailing becomes the architecture itself. Every centimetre had to be carefully designed and executed, turning the entire space into one continuous detail. Nothing was prefabricated; every element was hand-made. Some details were not predesigned but developed directly on site with the carpenters, as their need became evident during construction. This real-time design and deeply collaborative process led to simple—yet demanding—solutions: handles carved directly into wooden and tiled surfaces to prevent them from occupying the precious available space, seamlessly integrated cabinetry and doors such as the discreetly fold-out kitchen table or the shower door. In a space this compact, any imperfection or misalignment would be highly noticeable. The flawless execution of details by carpenters (Arjen and Mirjam) was essential. The detailing was praised by the jury of Architectenweb, who chose the Cabanon as Interior of the Year 2024.
The Cabanon unexpectedly challenges conventional ideas of space, functionality, and luxury. Architecture is not measured in square metres, but in the intensity of experience it creates—and in the capacity of colour and materialisation to expand perception and transform even the smallest space into a place of wonder.
The Cabanon could help optimizing housing and costs but in no way does it advocate towards the reduction of surfaces as the only strategy towards affordable housing, neither it pretends to become the “house of the future”. However, we can extrapolate some of its strategies in order to make current housing production better and cheaper. Some of these are: the optimisation of space–optimisation not understood as ‘reduction’ but as ‘maximisation’ of the possibilities of one space; the modulation of heights of certain spaces in order to superpose some functions; the anticipation of uses: such as by integrating utility connections in attics, storage rooms, or unused spaces, where the additional cost of these measures is minimal, yet they open up significant possibilities for future transformation, and the detachment towards possession and consumerism, so we are less inclined to buy and accumulate useless objects that clutter our houses and minds.
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To date, The Cabanon has received more than 30 international prizes and distinctions. Among them are Best Interior of the Year by Architectenweb (NL), winner of Living Interiors at the MIX Awards (UK), Public Winner for Interior of the Year at the Archello Awards (NL), and a longlisting at the Dezeen Awards (UK). At the FRAME Awards (NL), The Cabanon was named Winner of the Month (February 2025) across all categories and subsequently achieved Second Place in the Small Apartment category at the 2025 annual awards. The project has been featured in over 250 print and online publications worldwide, including twice in The New York Times, as well as de Volkskrant, Arquitectura Viva, Abitare, El País, Domus, and Architektur. In addition, The Cabanon has been presented in international documentaries and television programs, including Architectural Digest, Germany’s Galileo, RTL News - Editie NL, and Rijnmond TV.
Awards List:
Finalist in the Architizer A+ Awards, in the "Architecture + Color” category - ongoing
Organizer: Architizer
May 2026
SILVER CUBE WINNER in the 105th edition of ADC Annual Awards, in the "Architecture – Craft – Use of Color" category
Organizer: ADC Art Directors Club Awards – The One Club for Creativity, US
April 2026
Reader’s Award Winner in Detail Construction Awards in the “Interiors” category
Organiser: DETAIL magazine
April 2026
Finalist in the LICC (London International Creative Competition), in the "DECORATE (Interior) - Renovation" category
Organizer: FARMANI group
March 2026
Longlisted in CDA Créateurs Design Awards in the “Best Residential Project in Interior Design” category
Organiser: Créateurs Design Awards
Selected: 10
December 2025
SILVER WINNER in the AMA – Architecture Madrid Awards 2025 in the “Residential Design” category
Organizer: CEIDA (International Design Association)
September 2025
Honorable Mention in the Best 50 Interior Projects 2025
Organizer: Callwey Publishing, Germany
October 2025
Shortlisted in FRAME Awards 2025 in the “Small Apartment” category
Organizer: FRAME
October 2025
Longlisted in the DEZEEN Awards 2025 in the “Residential interior (small)” category
Organizer: DEZEEN, UK
September 2025
WINNER in the LOOP Design Awards 2025 in the categories “Interior – Compact Living Design” , “Architecture Video – Human Interaction” and “Architecture – Small Architecture”
Organizer: LOOP, Portugal
September 2025
WINNER in the DNA Paris Design Awards 2025 in the category “Small Scale Project”
Organizer: Farmani Group
July 2025
WINNER in the MIX Interior Awards 2025 for “Project of the Year - Living Interiors”
Organizer: MIX Interior Awards by MIX Magazine, UK
June 2025
GOLD WINNER of the Houzee Awards 2025 in the categories « Small Space & Apartment Design » and « Custom Exceptional Residential Design Achievements »
Organizer: Architecture Collection
June 2025
Longlisted in the ARC25 “Not Moving but Renovating” Award
Organizer: deArchitect, NL
May 2025
WINNER of the Month-February FRAME Awards 2025 across all categories
Organizer: FRAME Awards, Netherlands
March 2025
PLATINUM WINNER of the ADC Architecture Collection Awards 2024 in the category “Unique & Other interiors”
Organizer: Architecture Collection
December 2024
WINNER of the Public Vote ARCHELLO Awards 2024 in the category “Small Project of the Year”
Organizer: Archello.com, Netherlands
December 2024
WINNER of the Architectenweb Award 2024 in the category “Interior of the Year” in the Netherlands
Organizer: Architectenweb.nl, Netherlands
November 2024
HONOURABLE MENTION for the Masterprize Award in the category « Architectural Design / Small Architecture »
Organizer: Architecture Masterprize
October 2024
NL-3011 NT Rotterdam, Mariniersweg