This Tiny $8K Prefab Stretches Open for When You Need a Little More Room
The Iwi expands like an accordion to become an ad hoc office, studio, or in the case of its designers, a DJ booth for outdoor events.
The Iwi expands like an accordion to become an ad hoc office, studio, or in the case of its designers, a DJ booth for outdoor events.
Rooftop parties are common in Quito, Ecuador, with friends throwing barbecues on top of apartment towers, and bars serving from terraces that take advantage of beautiful mountain views surrounding the city. Earlier this year, Juan Ruiz and Amelia Tapia hosted a set of al fresco parties at their building, with DJs spinning neu beats to a small crowd of around 20 people. The headliner? A collapsible prefab structure that served as the DJ booth, designed and built by the architect couple.
The Iwi is a collapsible prefab developed by architects Juan Ruiz and Amelia Tapia that functions mostly as an office on their private rooftop balcony.
Photo by JAG Studio
The prefab, called Iwi, is meant as more than just a venue—it’s for anyone looking to add a flexible space to their property. With a timber frame clad in cork and waterproof canvas stitched into wood ribbing, it expands like an accordion to a total of roughly 92 square feet. When compressed, it becomes a 26-square-foot roofed hutch.
"It can be either fully compressed, or half open, or fully open," says the Spanish-born Ruiz, who’s been in Ecuador on and off for around a decade. "And you get back all the space here that you would otherwise lose," adds Tapia, an Ecuador native.
The Iwi can be extended or compressed, depending on the needs of the user. When compressed, it behaves like a piece of furniture or a shelf.
Photo: JAG Studio
The Iwi is easy to compress, providing flexibility on the fly.
Photo: JAG Studio
See the full story on Dwell.com: This Tiny $8K Prefab Stretches Open for When You Need a Little More Room
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