“Small Apartments”, by Cerver Franciso Asensio

Asensio, Cerver Francisco., and Wendy Griswold. Small Apartments. New York: Harper Design International, 2003. Print.
I was intrigued by this book, which I got off the library shelf because it caught my eye.  It has a pronounced international flavour, without being dominated by minimalist interiors that I can’t relate to.

I’ll start with my only complaint, which is really a small one; on page 7 they say “While none of the apartments exceeds 800 square feet…”, but the very first project, on page 11, is 850 square feet.  This is a fairly petty point, though, and the fact that the apartments are all 850 square feet or less is a big difference from the last book reviewed, which thought that a 2000 square foot house was “small”.

There is a loose organizational structure to this book, with the five sections concentrating on furnishings, color, movable panels, restraint, and exterior.  I particularly liked the section on color, since the prevailing wisdom is that white, or at least pale colours, makes a space look bigger.  The cover picture, in fact, is from that section, showing the kitchen/dining area of an apartment in Barcelona that uses bright colours to demarcate the various spaces in the apartment.

Floor plans are given whenever they would be helpful.