Student designer Stella van Beers converted a disused grain silo into a two-story micro-home, fit for the pages of a Dr. Seuss adventure.
There are tiny homes, and then there are really tiny homes. We’re talking like Horton Hears a Who! type-tiny. Whimsical by their very nature, designing tiny homes can bring architects to the far reaches of their imaginations. In pursuit of her bachelor’s degree at Design Academy Eindhoven, student designer Stella van Beers looked to grain silos to find her whimsy.
Designer: Stella van Beers
Plotted all over the Netherlands’ countryside, grain silos are largely going out of use due to a country-wide reduction of livestock, leading to lower demand for grain. Converting the disused silos into a functional and quirky place of respite, Stella van Beers renovated the cylindrical unit into a micro home.
Using a university assignment as a jumping-off point, van Beers explains the project’s conception, “I thought, if I want to do something with a silo then I have to just buy one and see what’s possible.” With her eyes set on a seven-meter tall grain silo, which she found for sale online, the seller ended up giving van Beers the silo for free.
Considering their unique, tubular shape, turning one into a micro-home was a challenge, but a long-overdue dream of van Beers. “You always see them in rural areas,” van Beers explains, “I always really wanted to go inside one, so thought it could be a nice place for a temporary stay.”
Starting from the container’s exterior, van Beers constructed a set of double doors to create an entrance into her micro-home, which connects with a semi-wraparound deck and spiral staircase. Moving inside, van Beers lengthened the interior volume by installing two floors joined together by a short staircase and ladder.
A set of two convex windows peek into the silo’s first floor, where a dual living and workspace can be found. Ascending to the mezzanine, van Beers covered the top floor with a mattress to provide short-term sleeping accommodations. To top it all off, van Beers converted the spring-loaded top lid into a skylight.
