Having an apartment with walls which you can slide open or move however you want definitely sounds cool and even a little bit science fiction. The concept is very real although not as exploited and popular as it could be. For the most part, this kind of flexible layouts with movable walls is seen in studio apartments or efficiency apartments, both of which are small and need the flexibility in order to be multifunctional.

Studio Kitoko.

A Tiny 420-sq-ft Apartment

420 square feet of space is definitely not a lot, especially when talking about an apartment. However, architecture students Catalin Sandu and Adrian Iancu managed to make the most of such a space when designing this apartment in Soho. The living room is at the hearth of the apartment and its function is not limited to that as it can also be used as a dining area. A table for ten can be unfolded in a matter of seconds. The same space also has a standing desk in the corner and a Murphy bed that unfolds over the sectional. Such a multifunctional design is possible thanks to a movable wall partition which lets the inhabitants divide the apartment according to their immediate needs.

Small Apartment In New York Has A Moving TV Wall

This apartment in New York is even smaller, measuring only 390 square feet. It too has a movable wall which allows a living area, a working space, a sleeping area, a dressing, a kitchen, a dining room and a bathroom to be all comfortably squeezed into this micro home. The wall slides from one side of the apartment to the other and connects or divides the day zone from the night zone. Another flexible design element is a pivoting divider with custom speakers and a TV nook which can rotate 180 degrees. The apartment was designed by MKCA.

Sliding units

The apartment you see here is located in Madrid and was designed by PKMN Architectures. The owners wanted it to function both as a home and workspace and a flexible design solution had to be found in order to make that happen. As a result, the kitchen, the bedroom and the storage spaces were integrated into a unit with movable walls which can be organized in a variety of ways. The unit is made of OSB and is positioned in a corner next to the bathroom. When closed, it’s compact and occupies little space. The numerous possible configurations make the apartment highly versatile.

Rotating wall unit

Not all spaces with movable walls are tiny. The one designed by PKMN Architectures is a project called Casa MJE. It has a rotating unit at its center and this is the element that defines the layout and delineates the functions and spaces. The movable walls allow the inhabitants to transform their home as necessary. One or even two bedrooms can be added to the layout whenever needed. The rest of the time, the space is just a spacious home with open rooms and a fresh and minimalist interior décor.

The apartment designed by Brad Swartz in Australia brings us back to the sphere of tiny homes. It measures a total of 27 square meters but it’s not nearly as tiny as expected. That’s all due to its flexible design. The owners wanted the apartment to have a lot of storage space, a laundry area, a dining space and to be functional and modern. Initially, it had only one room. The architect then managed to give it a better organized layout by adding a movable wall which conceals the bedroom and offers privacy without making the space feel cramped and tiny.

Limited square footage can be a real problem when you realize there’s just no way of including all the functions and features you want. Or is it? Somehow Spanish studio Elii Architects managed to give this small apartment a very flexible interior by using sliding glass partitions. Moreover, other ingenious design solutions were used. The dining table and benches are stored beneath the ceiling and can be lowered only when needed. A swing, a disco ball and a hammock are also stored in a similar manner. This allows the apartment to be transformed from a cozy home into a party gallery in just a few minutes.

Hong Kong Micro Apartment

LAAB Architects managed to include a full kitchen, a bathroom, a home cinema, a gym, and lots of storage is only 28 square meters (309 square feet). This was done by creating a series of different configurations which can be featured by the apartment. The space can be transformed by opening or closing movable walls. Appliances and spaces can be moved and hidden or revealed when necessary, allowing the apartment to be highly flexible and always organized. In addition to this type of layout, the apartment also has a series of smart features implemented in its design. This makes it not only versatile but also modern and user-friendly.

Micro Apartment in Paris

Paris has its own tiny apartment and by that we really mean tiny. This is an apartment of only 8 square meters. It was designed by Kitoko Studio and it used to be a maid room. Being so small and situated just under the roof, the apartment didn’t really seem to have much potential. Still, it became quite a cozy nook. It has a sleeping area suspended on a platform, a small kitchen, a dining space, a work zone and quite a bit of storage space. The bathroom is hidden behind a sliding wall. Every little inch of space had to be cleverly used and that meant that the floor area needed to be maximized. The designers managed to do that while also giving the apartment a stylish look.

Compared to the 8 square meter apartment featured above, this flat in Milan seems really spacious. It measures a total of 28 square meters and it was designed by studioWOK. The team faced the challenge of giving this small space the living comfort of a large apartment. The living space is the largest room and, although all the others are tiny by comparison, they offer the level of comfort required in each case. There are two movable walls here which conceal all the large furniture pieces such as the bed. Sliding doors hide the bathroom and kitchen and both of these spaces look like two blue boxes.

Smart storage apartment

The main goal for the renovation of this 700 square foot apartment in New York was to make it suitable for a family of four. In order to make that possible, a lot of ingenious and smart storage solutions had to be found and that was the job of the team from Noroof Architects. One of the first things they did was to remove some of the partitions in order to slightly increase and floor area. The living room occupies one side of the apartment and is connected to the rest of the spaces through a passage. A narrow sliding shelving unit doubles as a divider, separating the bedroom from the social area and offering it privacy.