The Tardis, a tiny tower house | Edwards Moore Architects

This mini tower is located in a central Melbourne, Australia, neighborhood. The “Tardis” as it is now called was originally an octagonal gazebo-type structure built on top of a brick backyard shed. Wanting to make better use of the structure, the owner asked Edwards Moore Architects to covert it into a micro-sized guest/rental suite while still retaining a separate ground-level workshop space. That was a lot to fit in considering that the building appears to be only about 250 ft² (23 m²) total, and much of that is taken up by the thick brick walls.

The architects split the ground floor into two, each with its own entrance. The larger part is the requested workspace while the smaller part is the entry and bathroom for the guest suite. The dividing wall was angled just enough to accommodate a shower, basin and toilet. The bathroom door doubles as a very steep stair (barely more than a ladder) to the rest of the guest suite upstairs. To access the bathroom, you have to push the stair to the right. An angled slot in the wall allows it to temporarily slide into the workshop space. If necessary, the stair can also be moved from the upper level using a rope and pulley system. Should that prove too inconvenient, you can also get to and from the upper level by an exterior spiral stair.

The upper floor is a wonderful octagon-shaped room. Floor-to-ceiling windows extend around half the perimeter, visually expanding the space, while the remaining walls are brick. It would be a nice size for a living room, a kitchen or a bedroom, but here it has to serve as all three. To make it all fit, the architects put a small kitchenette (with bar fridge and sink but no cooktop) on a raised platform. The platform is just wide enough to conceal a pull-out double bed, and the platform’s height is about right to double as seating. The living space expands to the outdoors through French doors that open to a nice deck shaded by a large gum tree. Storage space within the suite is quite limited. There are some shelves above the stairs, plus a small amount of underfloor storage in the corner where the stairs come up.

If you’d like to visit Melbourne and experience very tiny living, the Tardis can be rented through AirBnB.

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Photographs by Fraser Marsden, courtesy of Edwards Moore Architects. Via Yellowtrace.