The MINI LIVING URBAN CABIN for London Design Festival 2017.

The MINI LIVING URBAN CABIN for London Design Festival 2017.

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of visiting the MINI LIVING Eco concept home called the URBAN CABIN, at the OXO Tower Wharf’s courtyard, in London’s Southbank.

Following my previous trip to Milan, to see MINI Living’s ‘Breathe’ installation, another small space living concept , I was excited to see their new project this year, being unveiled at the London Design festival.MINI LIVING is a long term project by MINI that explores the different concepts of shared living, in an era of ever increasing urbanisation and housing space shortage.

The project aimed to explore a more ‘conscious’ way of living, by reducing our personal carbon footprint, but staying true to design.This year MINI had designed a 15 square metre URBAN CABIN in a fine Copper casing. They have partnered with local architect Sam Jacob studio for a touch of London character to the space.

Sam Jacob studio had added two modules to the cabin, the first of which, is a shared kitchen to symbolise the importance of food markets in a modern culture.

You can see the dining table that extends outwards from the internal kitchen in the photo above.Here’s a view from outside in. The table is multi functional and will easily accommodate a gathering of people for a shared meal.I got to enjoy a cold coffee press workshop by Sandows at the Cabin’s kitchen table last weekend.I’ve never considered drinking cold brew coffee, and now I’m a convert.Around the kitchen space is a shelving unit with a little display of small space living essentials.Here it is again, captured in a mirror on the opposite wall.The second add on by Sam Jacobs studio to the URBAN CABIN, is this structure called the Stack, which internally houses a micro library. The design was a response to the closure of many of England’s public libraries in an era of digitalisation.The Stack resembled a pile of books, and was made of many different materials, ranging from Terazzo, foam and acrylic.This is the internal micro library, filled with books of a London theme.

For the duration of the London Design festival, you can bring a book to swop for another at the shelf.

I have added my all time favourite romantic novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’ into the mix.I love this large louvre window of the URBAN CABIN, as it gave that feeling of continuity from inside to the external world.So how do you feel? Is this concept of small space living for you? I think it’s a brilliant, with lots of elements that can be extracted for future homes.

The URBAN CABIN will be up until Sunday 24/09/17, so catch it whilst you can. The installation will be travelling next to New York, where a new local add on design will transform the space.

( All photography are by Geraldine Tan, editor of Little Big Bell. This post is a sponsored collaboration with MINI. All views and opinions are my own.)