Katherine Rybinski

I was captivated by the non-fiction book ‘Walden; or, Life in the Woods’ by Henry David Thoreau, an American Philosopher. The premise of the book is that Thoreau moved to his friend’s property and built himself a 3m by 5m cabin, with nothing other than a fireplace, table, desk, bed and 3 chairs. This made me question how much space and belongings people need to live in a functioning home. It will take 16 years for a couple earning an average income, with average bills to afford a 20% deposit on a house in Auckland. Subsequently people are turning to smaller living such as tiny homes to get on the property market. As the kitchen is the heart of the home, with the dining area acting as an extension to socialise, I focused on the two to design a compact tiny house kitchen with a dining unit built in.