Making an 6.72m^2 Apartment for Three

In a world where the densely populated urban area space is always at a premium, one of the biggest challenges is making the most out of small living spaces without sacrificing comfort or functionality. Whether it’s cramming furniture into a tiny apartment or struggling to find room for day-to-day essentials, living efficiently can feel impossible.

To solve this, I designed a mini apartment model that prioritizes smart space utilization and functionality. The apartment includes all the necessities—sleeping, working, relaxing, cooking, and washing—while fitting into a highly compact footprint. The total area of the apartment layout is only approximately 7 square meters, but it can somewhat comfortably fit three people.

In this instructable, we will explore the steps required for planning, modelling, and making a real-life model of this compact apartment.

Supplies:

1. A computer with Fusion installed (or any other 3D modelling software)
2. Sketchbook
3. Depending if you want a real-life model:
4. 3D printer with compatible filament
5. Glue
6. Sandpaper (optional for finishing)

1. Plan dimensions:
2. Begin by listing out a list of essential furniture and planning them out with approximate dimensions.
3. Use measurements to establish realistic spacing for different zones such as the bathroom, kitchen, bed, closet, etc.
4. Adjust and make updates:
5. update the dimensions of the room as you go in case you need more space for things. You should also reference real-life measurements to ensure the proportionality of your furniture.
6. Sketch it out!
7. this is an essential part of designing as much of Fusion modelling references back to your sketch. Having a reference will save you a huge amount of time as you don't have to constantly make changes based on errors in your design.

In this case, I decided to use the overhead space of the closet as a bed. This sofa may also be expanded and retracted to turn into another bed. It made sense for a desk to be beside the sofa, so I added a retractable table onto the closet to optimize space use.

1. Do you need to scale things down?
2. If you plan to print out a model, it would help to scale your model down based on dimensions that can fit your 3D printer. In my case, I used a scale of 1m: 8cm.
3. Bed with integrated closet and desk:
4. start with a base of the closet, extrude and hollow the space for shelves and cabinets.
5. sketch and extrude body for the desk.
6. sketch the base for the bed and extrude.
7. model safety rails, ladders, and pillows.
8. Tip: Using the fillet tool allows the design to look much more sophisticated.
9. Kitchen counter:
10. start with a sketch of the dimensions for the base. Extrude for the overall body.
11. hollow and extrude for additional cabinets.
12. sketch and extrude shapes for sink and stovetops.
13. Extractable sofa:
14. start with a sketch of the dimensions for the base before extracting. Extrude for the overall body.
15. sketch and extrude the back of the sofa.
16. sketch and extrude the extractable portion of the sofa.
17. sketch and extrude for cabinets.
18. Tip: again, the fillet tool is very useful here. The rectangular pattern tool can be used to model the extractable part.
19. Model additional furniture.

In this step, we will put together the individual files for the furniture.

1. Start a new file in Fusion
2. Sketch out the base of the apartment.
3. Insert furniture files and place them using the move (point to point) tool.

An apartment wouldn't be complete without walls or doors. In this step, we will complete the model for the apartment.

1. Use the offset tool to model the sketch for the wall.
2. Extrude the sketch to the desired height based on your design.
3. Model door handles by using the revolve tool.

In this step, we will create a 3D-printed model.

1. Export individual files for furniture and walls.
2. Using Bambu Studio, slice files.
3. Depending on the dimensions of your 3D printer, large models such as the walls need to be split to fit.
4. For combined models such as the bed and closet, it would save time to print the bed and closet separately, as you don't have to print supports.
5. Assemble parts using glue.
6. Polish with sandpaper.