Tucked snugly into a corner of the Charles Moore Foundation in Austin, Tx, this micro apartment was originally a 10’x10’x10’ painting studio, lovingly known as the “Cube Room”. After Charles Moore passed away his home became a museum, and the living spaces became accommodations for visiting professors, lecturers, and dignitaries. For many years, the Cube Room served as a spare bedroom, but it was too small to be comfortable for an extended stay. This expanded “Cube Loft” was designed and built as a collaboration between Adam Word Gates and Kevin Keim, Director of the Charles Moore Foundation. It was completed in 2014.

The design is the result of tight constraints. The goal was to create a space that is physically small and experientially large. A new gable window was added in order to create a sleeping loft and to fill the space with light. The bed was positioned in a “basket” hung from a truss which forms the window. The tansu-like staircase holds a kitchenette and cabinets which provide access to the sleeping loft above. A serpentine ribbon begins as a desk in the sleeping loft, where it splits and traces two lines through the space forming bookshelves in the living space and handrails for the stairs.