Um quarto em uma caixa! (Ou: o máximo em espaços multiuso)

We have a big empty room (24x24') that we need to turn into bedroom space for two very different individuals: a middle-aged mother and a teenage daughter. As you may imagine, this is likely to result in open warfare if we don't do something to assure everyone privacy, even though we actually get along quite well, as parents and teenagers go. In addition, we're hoping to use the space some of the time as extra living room. It's a lot to ask of one space, even a large one.

In order to make it work, we're planning to construct two "sleeping boxes," something like the roomlets which are used in "pod hotels" in many countries. Each box will be a self-contained set of bedroom furniture and storage for one person, and the furniture and cabinetry which make up the walls around the bed will allow for individual privacy. We will have the sleeping boxes constructed inside the room by a carpenter, but we will need to move in several years, and want to take them with us. So they should be able to come apart into component pieces for transport to a new home someday.

NOTE: There are three cats who will be sharing this space with us. Their needs will be part of these boxes too.

ON DELIVERABLES: Anyone who's done a contest with me knows, I need words, not just pictures! If you can write up a description of what you're building me, that's really helpful. If you don't want to do that, please LABEL EVERY FEATURE in your pictures -- put a name on every storage unit, every door, every drawer, every slot... because if you don't tell me what something is, I can't identify it; and if I can't identify it, I cannot give you credit for having included it. In addition, because almost all the features of this box will need to be closed away behind smooth doors some of the time, and open/out and in use at other times, please SHOW both positions! Give me a picture from one angle with all the storage open and the stuff labeled, and then give me another from the same angle with the doors closed and the doors labeled. I am not outright requiring a written description this time the way I did the last time, but I'm going to count on you to be very, *very* clear about what you're showing me -- both in the words/labels and in the graphics. Assume that I'm a design idiot who doesn't know what I'm seeing unless you *tell* me what I'm seeing. It's close to the truth.

Also note: while you are being requested to design the box, not the room around the box, if you want to throw in the latter as an extra I'm not going to object. It is NOT okay, however, to put some of the features which I've asked to have in the box elsewhere in the room instead. Things that need to be part of the box need to be part of the box. The rest of the room is something of a blank slate, for design purposes; either ignore it or have fun with it, as you choose. All we have planned for it is a box in each of two corners, a bathroom and the door in the other two, and plenty of brightly-colored comfortable seating in the rest of the space.

Our goal: provide everything someone might need in a comfortable, efficient grownup's bedroom within the constraints of a single box. (Bathroom facilities are not necessary; we'll construct a separate bathroom elsewhere in the room.)

Our challenge: configuration -- packing features into a small space. This needs to be able to hold a lot of individual possessions, be not too difficult to access any of them, and allow the occupant to use any of a number of different features or space arrangements without too much rearrangement. Preference goes to designs which don't require, for example, digging a desktop out of a hole underneath the mattress and slotting it into a space on the outside of the box every time we want to use the desk!

Budget is flexible within reason, but the whole purpose of our doing this is to AVOID having to spend the kind of money it would take to build a real apartment. Our hard limit is $15K per box, but ideally you won't push it hard up against the limit. The less you make us spend, so long as we get our necessary features, the happier we will be -- and the more likely you are to win this contest.

Another huge challenge for these boxes is light and noise control. We want as much soundproofing as possible, so that if one of us wakes up at night, they won't wake the other with tossing around in bed or getting up to use the bathroom. So please show us how we can provide some degree of sound baffling, and a great deal of light protection, within each box! We know that it's not possible to soundproof a box the way it would be to soundproof a room with full-width walls, but we'd like to do our best to soundproof each box as well as we realistically can.

Both boxes will most likely be identical, even though there are some slightly different needs. You don't have to design two separate boxes; we are expecting that you'll only design one, and we'll duplicate it flipping the left and right so that they can sit in opposite corners.

Necessary features in each box:

-A king-sized bed (probably platform bed with a mattress; box springs aren't needed). This is the central space, where the occupant will be spending their time when they're using their box. All internal features should be easily accessible from a position on the bed.

-Storage: There are two different kinds of storage in this box: internal and external. Internal storage must be reachable by somebody sitting on the bed, without getting up and leaving the box. External storage can be accessed from a position standing outside the box, in the room. Both kinds will be needed. If I don't mention, about a given feature, that it needs to be internal, assume it's okay to make it external.

-An internal desk surface, which can be used from a position sitting crosslegged on the bed. (Bonus points if it can *also* be taken outside the bed and used on the floor if one wishes.) The desk surface should not be permanently in the way above a part of the bed; instead, it should fold away or otherwise store out of the way when not in use, but must be easily retrievable from inside the bed when desired. Ideally, the desk surface shouldn't sit directly on the bed when in use; it should be raised at least a few inches above, for ergonomic comfort.

-Good clear lighting inside the box which can be controlled from the interior and not easily seen from outside the box. Power outlets (or their equivalent, via designated spaces through which extension cords and power strips can run) inside the box, with power cord management so they don't get either messy or attacked by cats.

-A way for the cats to get in and out of the boxes, without the occupant having to open the box up for them individually every time.

-A lap table which can flip out from the wall and allow someone to read a book, use a laptop, or eat a meal in bed, from a normal position half-sitting/half-lying against pillows. This can be the same *surface* as the desk or it can be a different one, but if it's the same one as the desk note that this is NOT the same *position* as the desk should be in. The desk needs to be used when sitting fully vertical, crosslegged on the bed (probably near the foot). So, if you're using the same slab as both desktop and bed table, it needs to be capable of being set up and used in two very different places, each with relative ease on the part of the user.

-Internal storage: the following items should each have a space which can be reached comfortably from the inside of the box: nightstand type items (small toiletries, etc). Snack foods. Medicines. (Two large drawers' worth of space just for these -- I've got a lot of medicines.) Books (at least one long shelf for these inside the box). A nightdress or robe. Papers and desk supplies. A laptop computer. A fairly large collection of tablets, phones, e-readers, and general small electronics. [NOTE: Small or fragile items should be in an enclosed location which the cats can't mess with.]

External storage. This should be made out of the frame of the box, in a way which allows us to reach that drawer, cabinet or shelf from a position standing next to the box, in the main room. The following items need to be stored in the frame: At least two large dressers' worth of clothing in each box -- most of our clothes are stored in drawers. One small to medium closet-bar space for hanging clothes in each box. Space for several pairs of shoes in each box (we're not shoe fiends, but I've got maybe 8-9 pairs; my daughter has fewer). An "outer closet" -- space for purses/backpacks, and outdoor clothing like coats, sweaters and gloves. (Can be part of the same cabinet as the other closet stuff... there just needs to be enough space for both in it, if so.) More bookshelf space than there is in the interior... the equivalent of one full-height bookcase per box, at least. One locking file drawer.

-Storage for extra sheets and blankets. This can be either internal or external, but with a preference for internal if it fits. Should hold a lot of stuff -- at least a half-dozen sheet sets and three or four big blankets.

-Laundry and garbage drops: There should be bins for dirty laundry, for garbage, and for recycling. The tops of these should open onto the interior of the box, so someone inside the box can just open a lid and drop their laundry or garbage into the correct bin. However, they should *also* be accessible from the outside, so that when they are full someone can open an external side door, take out the bin, and empty it before putting it back in its compartment. Garbage/recycling should be grouped together; laundry can either be near them or separate.

NICE BUT NOT NECESSARY: The following is stuff we'd find really helpful to be able to have as part of the boxes, but which doesn't really need to be there... we can put it separately, if there isn't space.

-Storage for cleaning supplies, cat food, and cat litter. External.

-A space for the cat food and water bowls to be set (external) and a separate space (also external) for the cat litterbox, keeping it out of sight of the main room. Litterbox must be fairly far away from the cat food and water bowls... you don't like to eat in *your* bathroom either. :D

-An internal space to display stuffed animals or other pretty things so they can be seen from the bed but aren't actually on it.

-A TV/monitor mount, on one of the internal walls or corners.

-A mirror. Can be either internal or external.

AESTHETICS: Lively, modern, vivid colors. NO black or pink. Smooth surfaces and clean lines. Bamboo is a favored surface material.

CONFIGURATION NOTES:

-All six sides of the space will be constructed, for light and noise insulation reasons. Please don't give me designs which have any side, or the top, open to the room full-time. It is fine -- and indeed encouraged -- to have at least one side which CAN be opened to the room, so long as there's a way to close it which still allows for protection from light and sound, when the occupant wants to go to sleep. It is not, however, *necessary* to have it open at all, except for the obvious need for access for humans and cats. If you design something with no openings except for a door and a cat-gate, that'll be fine. If you design something with a side which opens up to the room, but can be shut when desired, that'll be even better but you don't have to.

-It's expected that the bed will be up in the air, with a lot of the storage tucked underneath it. This is totally okay, and even desirable, so long as there is enough space for an adult to sit up with good head clearance from the ceiling of the box. Rolling storage on casters to allow items to be stored deep underneath the bed in inaccessible places but be pulled out easily from a spot at the foot or the side of the bed, is also encouraged.

-Ideally, each box will be set into a corner of the room, with the head and one wall tightly positioned against the walls of the room. This means that two whole sides of the exterior won't be accessible. Don't design storage which needs to be accessed from the outside on all four walls, therefore! Use the two "closed walls" for internal storage and the others for external storage, with the underneath reachable from one of the external-storage walls, and you'll be just fine. If you really have to, it's okay to design it with three walls of external storage and we'll place it against one wall of the room instead of in the corner against two... but we'd rather have the corner. And since there's a lot of internal storage needed, it should be possible to use those sides of the box for storage which is expected to be accessed from the inside, not from the outside, of the box... they needn't be useless.