Tiny House | May 2024 | 1:48 scale

This tiny house was made for my architecture final at Diablo Valley College. The name is a tongue and cheek response to multiple people telling me the shape of the wall looks like a grand piano, and I'm mad because if I had thought of that earlier I would have made a piano-shaped tiny house. Still, I really like what I did with the design.

It was made with loose inspiration from Frank Gehry's work. His influence can be seen in the curved walls and flowing interior layout, but I tried to make the design much more functional than his work tends to be.

The S-shaped wall on the first floor is flipped on the north/south axis for the second floor, which creates a covered front entrance area and a second floor deck. The furniture is all shaped to the walls to make the most of the space, however unrealstic that may be for a real home.

I put a lot of thought into the feeling of the house. I wanted to create a living experience that guided you through the house, and I did this in a few ways. First, the entrance is nestled in the concave part of the S-shaped wall, framed by the bench that sits outside the door. Upon entering, the large windows on the second floor draw attention towards the kitchen area, and away from the laundry and storage area on the left. Following the light leads you up the stairs and to the wide open bedroom, whose lines all converge on the bed in the corner.

There are many multi-functional features in the house. For example, the stairs have a storage area underneath, and the bedroom windows are strategically positioned to avoid a direct view of the bed from outside but still provide a draft. My personal favorite is that the loft wall serves three purposes: protection from falling of course, but also as a stair railing, and it affords some privacy in a room that would otherwise be very exposed by the large windows on the west side.