The small Sydney homes that are growing a big audience worldwide
By Julie Power
Sydney architect Ed Lippmann has won major awards for large urban projects and offices such as 8 Chifley Square that span city blocks, but a redesign of his son Mitch’s 50 sq m warehouse apartment in Darlinghurst has delivered a global audience from those who love living small.
Because buying something tiny and rundown was often the only way for many young people to own a home, Lippmann said he was getting calls from fellow architects whose adult children want what Mitch is having.
Architect Ed Lippmann transformed a small unit for his son in Darlinghurst. Credit: Wolter Peeters
A video of the project, “Architect Dad Transforms Son’s Small Sydney Apartment”, has been viewed more than 434,000 times on the popular Australian-operated YouTube channel Never Too Small.
With 3 million subscribers, Never Too Small is one of a range of YouTube channels catering to a growing audience that wants advice and inspiration on how to live more sustainably, smaller and for less. They include Living Big in a Tiny House, with 4.65 million subscribers, and Exploring Alternatives, with 2.53 million subscribers.
Lippmann said his son’s project had a bigger message than living small. It was also about sustainability and reducing the need for new construction, which accounts for almost 40 per cent of all carbon emissions globally.
“You could demolish this and build something bigger,” he said of the old Reader’s Digest warehouse in Woolloomooloo that was converted to units 50 years ago. “But the bigger picture is that we should be adapting older buildings for new uses in the city.”
Lippmann said his son had been a well-informed client who had watched Never Too Small’s YouTube videos, and read their magazine and other design publications.
“His brief was that he wanted a good kitchen, and a mezzanine bedroom, and his other requirement was that it should be good enough to appear on Never Too Small. Luckily, I satisfied the brief,” Lippmann says in the video.
The loft’s wooden wall also operates as bookshelves, or somewhere to sit, read, and dangle your legs over the side.
Mitch Lippmann, a chef now working in Copenhagen for the Noma group, said he was passionate about hosting and home-making. He wanted to create a space where “you could have people over, and have a generous space to cook and eat”.
Ed Lippmann said most of the project was “just joinery”.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Mitch acknowledged he was in a privileged position to have his father’s help, and had bought “the property with the fact that my father was an architect in mind”. The project cost $100,000, and was made more affordable because his dad did the design at no cost.
Ed Lippmann said most of the project was “just joinery”. The wall surrounding the stainless-steel galley kitchen is filled with floor-to-ceiling modern cabinetry.
Never Too Small was started in 2017 by Colin Chee, a Melbourne videographer who lives in a tiny apartment. After he bought it, he started asking architects for ideas on how to improve his home.
Never Too Small has 3 million subscribers on YouTube, and has published more than 500 videos on tiny apartments around the world.
A mezzanine bedroom was one of the requirements in the brief Mitch Lippmann gave his father.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Chee said urban and city design had a big impact on small living. For people living small, he said the city was an extension of the home, the supermarket the pantry, and the local park the backyard.
Many of the more popular videos are about Japanese projects, where living small had always been part of the culture, he said.
Chee said he tries to vary the mix of apartments. The Lippmann apartment was chosen because it was in an old warehouse with such high ceilings, 3.6 metres.
Chee said the difference between living in a small home versus a large one was that you can do anything in a bigger space. “For small living, it is all about personalisation, trying to make a small space fit the owner’s needs. It’s like a dress that fits you perfectly.”
Interest in small homes was growing. In Australia, Chee said it was driven by household data showing 26 per cent of Australians are living by themselves, a trend expected to continue.
If a home is never too small, what is too big? Chee said the YouTube channel focuses on projects smaller than 60 sq m. The magazine features larger projects.
Each episode is planned and scripted in Australia, and the owners are given detailed instructions on how to shoot it, and what angles are required.
Some of the Australian projects include
- A Rose Bay 24m2 apartment by architect Brad Swartz was viewed 18 million times.
- A converted miners home by Dean Williams of Architect George viewed 2 million times.
- A Sydney couple’s 60m2 terrace home by architect Adele McNab where the ground floor is open to the public for communal events.
- An 1849 convict built cabin of 59 sq m updated by Sam Eggleton, founder of Convict Interiors
- A 28 sq m Blue Mountains home by Stewart Smith of Smith Architects.
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