Zwei Doppelhäuser mit Atelier © Friedrich Brenner

Tiny Houses by Brenner

01.10.–13.11.2022 at Maximilianmuseum

As early as the 1970s, the well-known medalist, sculptor and architect Friedrich Brenner realized his ideas of space-saving construction with natural building materials at reasonable prices. In recent years, he has again been involved in the design of small and very small houses, so-called tiny houses. Often inspired by geometric bodies such as cubes, cylinders and spheres, Brenner has come up with highly diverse solutions for duplexes and single houses. tiny houses enable new ways of living and require us to rethink and question our lifestyles.  


Thoughts of Friedrich Brenner

"Häuseln" that's what we said when we built a shelter - a hut - out of old boards and rusty nails as children. Häuseln is no longer said today when young people with little money build or have built a dwelling, a room reduced to the bare essentials. A tiny house! This term did not exist when I built my house in the mid-1970s.
My ideas were: a house made of natural building materials (the word biological building was still unknown to me), a wooden beam ceiling instead of concrete; Spruce belts instead of carpeting as floor covering; a three-layer lime plaster; the painting - outside and inside - with silicate paint; all wooden parts left natural; small windows with shutters; a tiled stove for central heating. The house was built with little money.

Design of small houses

In recent years I have been fascinated by designing small or very small apartments. A plot of 1000 m2 in the middle of the village (no development plan), in a quiet location, was the starting point for my planning. I distributed five small houses on the property, then a block of flats with 8 apartments. For 8 apartments an elevator has to be installed. But the biggest problem was the parking spaces. Two parking spaces per residential unit! What nonsense! I then arranged the five cottages in a line from east to west on the property. But at both ends of the line, I had trouble with the spaces. Then came the design with two semi-detached houses and, in the middle, to the south, a detached house (studio house). The distance areas were halved and I got along with the minimum distance of 3 m. With this construction method I was able to increase the living space from 33 m2 to 50 m2.
I cought up offers. I only received 2 offers and an estimate from six companies - and that after four months. The asking prices were more than twice what I expected. I couldn't build that expensive!

Geometric shapes for space-saving construction

A building with a gross volume of 75 m3 does not require a permit in Bavaria either! It was a tinkering job to design a house to live in in such a small space. What I thought about 50 years ago was: A sphere is the most compact body, then a cylinder, then a cube. The result was a small house with a square floor plan of 5/5 m, 2 glazed walls, 2 verandas on both sides, a roof that protrudes far. The interior transparent, transparent. Wardrobe and fridge on the veranda. Which heater? A small iron stove or infrared heater.

Problems with tiny houses

Will such a house be popular? Young people want to downsize their living space. Many older people also want to live smaller. But what to do with all that bulky furniture? They hang on their old chipboard furniture, on the big couch, on the big armchairs. Several problems arise when building small apartments: the young people don't have the money; they usually have no property. The old people have money but don't want to part with their furniture. The building regulations make no difference between a residential building with 300 m2 and a small residential building with 30 m2 of living space that is inhabited all year round. Only with the living pavilion with a gross volume of 75 m3 do I get more freedom when building. Even if I do not exceed 75 m3 gross volume, the specifications for statics, parking spaces, distance areas, and the Energy Saving Ordinance (EnEV) must be observed.

Rethinking the way of life

One would have to get away from the usual way of thinking and develop completely new forms of housing and life: Does the refrigerator have to be in a heated room? Do you have to take a 20-minute shower in such a small house? Does the clothing (where each piece is chemically treated) have to be placed in the living room or bedroom? Is it time-consuming to cook in such a small house (humidity)? The washing machine and the toilet do not have to be in the heated room either.
The now high energy costs may make such new forms of living possible.

Friedrich Brenner, June 2022