The Design of DC's Tiny Homes on The Wharf
Rendering of a micro-unit at The Wharf. Courtesy of PN Hoffman.
As the micro-unit trend sweeps through urban areas, one DC developer has begun finalizing the design of a few tiny homes that will be coming to the city in 2017.
Around 150 of the 875 residential units at the massive waterfront project The Wharf will be extremely small studios. Though they aren’t quite as teeny as NYC’s 275-square-foot apartments, they will be tighter than your average home, at between 330 and 380 square feet. Because of the limited square footage, the developers Hoffman-Madison Waterfront and architects Perkins Eastman-DC are working to create design elements that make the space comfortable and useful.
“We’ve been thinking about every square inch and making it as flexible and user-friendly as possible,” Hoffman-Madison Waterfront’s Matt Steenhoek told UrbanTurf.
Some of the features reminded us of Graham Hill’s “LifeEdited“ apartment, which manages to fit 8 rooms into a 420-square-foot space by creating multi-purpose spaces, built-ins and moving walls. At The Wharf, built-ins will fill up one entire wall, from the doorway to the window. Shelves for books, an armoire for clothing, a sleek kitchen and a Murphy bed that turns into a couch and shelf at night allow residents to make better use of the available floor space.
Steenhoek assures us that the Murphy bed will be “sleek and modern,” and that the refrigerator will be smaller than one you might find in a rowhouse or two-bedroom condo. “You’re not shopping for a family of four, so you don’t need a massive fridge,” he noted. Rather than swinging doors, the Wharf units will have a sliding barn door. The bathroom will have natural light coming through a translucent glass wall near the shower.
In addition to built-ins, the designers made sure that each unit has some sort of interaction with the outdoors and the waterfront views. Some units will have floor-to-ceiling windows, with bays looking out into Virginia, while others will have double glass doors that open to a juliet balcony.
The Wharf is estimated to break ground at some point this year, but these miniscule units won’t be available until 2017.
See other articles related to: dclofts, micro units, the wharf dc
This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/micro-units_at_the_wharf_will_have_built-ins_and_multi-purpose_areas/7229.
Most Popular... This Week • Last 30 Days • Ever
Roadside Development filed a sketch plan with Montgomery County this month for the 30... read »
The Matthew is located on 9th Street, overlooking the iconic Naylor Court and neighbo... read »
Construction continues humming along on several developments on the uppermost stretch... read »
Today, we take a closer look at home insurance.... read »
Unlike other new residential developments in the city, all of the apartments will be ... read »
- A First Look At The 525-Unit Development That Will Incorporate Silver Spring's Tastee Diner
- Nine Stylish Condominiums Debut in Shaw's Iconic Naylor Court
- The 1,600 Units In The Walter Reed/Takoma Development Pipeline
- A Look at What is Covered By Home Insurance
- 8-Unit Project + Restaurant Proposed Along Georgetown Canal
DC Real Estate Guides
Short guides to navigating the DC-area real estate market
We've collected all our helpful guides for buying, selling and renting in and around Washington, DC in one place. Start browsing below!
First-Timer Primers
Intro guides for first-time home buyers
Unique Spaces
Awesome and unusual real estate from across the DC Metro