How to jigsaw a twin bed (or a few), plus desks, shelves, and closets into a tiny room? Here are 11 designer dorms and dorm-style lodgings currently on our radar, starting with a 1920s classic that has become a pilgrimage stop for the devout modernist.
Bauhaus Dessau in Germany
Student and professor studios at the Bauhaus Dessau were furnished with designs by members of the faculty: the intention was to introduce hardworking, industrial-edged furnishings to humble student quarters.
Shown here, the Josef Albers room with two of his iconic furniture designs (a reproduction of the Bauhaus Nesting Table, in a set of four, is currently available from France & Son for $449, marked down from $760).
New York–based property developer Macro Sea used easy-to-rearrange wheeled wardrobes and other wooden cubes in its G.27 Global Institute Berlin, a combination campus and dormitory. This one occupies a century-old former factory in Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighborhood.
G27 Global Institute in Berlin
“We reject the standard operating procedure for a student dormitory,” say the team at Macro Sea.
Formerly two 19th-century office buildings, Generator in Mitte, Berlin, is “an arts focused uber hostel.” The company has 14 outposts in Europe, ranging from Amsterdam to Venice, plus one in Miami, all designed by Toronto-based Design Agency.
Generator Hostel in Berlin
Base Camp in Potsdam, Germany
BaseCamp, another of the many companies offering fully furnished dorms in repurposed buildings, takes great care to get the design details right.
Shown here, a 23-square-meter (247.57-square-foot) single at the BaseCamp Potsdam, with a platform storage bed of waxed birch sectioned off by netting to allow natural light to fill the room.
At other BaseCamp locations, Studio Aisslinger applied the same design vocabulary without repeating themselves.
Base Camp in Lodz, Poland
BaseCamp Copenhagen occupies a grand 1771 former barracks across from the Rosenborg Castle gardens with 216 irregularly shaped rooms.
Base Camp in Copenhagen
Urban Rigger is the first in what its founder, Kim Loudrup, plans to be a fleet of floating student houses made from recycled shipping containers.
Urban Rigger in Copenhagen
Hello I’m Local is a hostel in Haarlem, the Netherlands, with a dozen rooms ranging from doubles to dorms, all done up in new and vintage Dutch designs.
Hello I’m Local, in Haarlem, the Netherlands
Custom particle board bunk beds designed by architect Catarina Cabral contrast with the parquet flooring and soaring ceilings at Lisbon’s Independente Hostel & Suites set in what had been the Swiss ambassador’s residence.
Independente Hostel & Suites in Lisbon
The playful Superbude II St Pauli, and its companion hostel, Superbude St. Georg, both in Hamburg, Germany, are the work of German architecture firm Dreimeta.
Superbude II Saint Pauli in Hamburg, Germany
Bed & Bike in Barcelona
Bed & Bike Barcelona in Eixample is set up for visitors who want to pedal around the city.