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Little Wood Home

A room tour of a home shared with birds, insects and the life underground

The Little Wood Home room: the Nest Chair and the Creepy Crawly Coffee Table on the Mud Pit Carpet, in a living room.

Challenge

How might a home be redesigned as a shared habitat, and how might that change the way people see their relationship with other species?

Team
8 designers
Partner
Takram
My Role
Research
Concept development
Sketching
Prototyping
Final product construction
Timeline
Feb 2023 – Mar 2023

Problem statement

Sustainable design often focuses on reducing human impact, but still treats humans as the main users of space. In domestic environments, non-human species are usually excluded, controlled, or treated as unwanted intruders.

Aim

We set out to create a speculative room tour that invites visitors to experience domestic space from a non-human perspective. Through research, observation, prototyping and immersive room design, we explored how furniture, materials, movement and sensory cues could support the idea of multispecies co-living.

The project’s design brief.
Design brief · Photo credits: UAL MA User Experience

Research insights

To understand both human habits and non-human habitats, we used three research methods across domestic and natural settings.

Artifact analysis
Artifact analysis board of household products and sustainable designs.

We studied household products and existing sustainable designs to see how domestic objects are usually designed around human needs.

AEIOU observation
AEIOU observation board with notes from homes and the forest.

We observed homes and forests, focusing on activities, interactions, materials, and the living conditions of local plants and animals.

Directed storytelling
Directed storytelling notes and photos.

We talked with people about their energy use, domestic habits, and how open they were to sharing space with other species.

Key insights

01
Most domestic products remain human-centered, even when they claim to be sustainable.
02
Dead wood, soil, moss and organic waste can support insects, fungi and underground organisms.
03
Some people were open to sharing their home with other species, but only when it felt manageable and safe.

Design concept

From the research insights, we used brainstorming and early sketches to imagine a future co-living room, where furniture could become habitats for insects, birds and underground organisms.

Brainstorming
Crazy 8s brainstorming sketches.

Building on the research, we explored future household objects that could serve both people and non-human habitats.

Initial sketch
Initial sketch of a house with a chimney, and the room inside.

The chimney became the key spatial idea. Rather than a barrier, it is a passage between the home and the outside world, and it has visitors enter the room from a lower, less human-centered viewpoint.

Key design elements

We designed three pieces of furniture, all made from organic materials such as branches, bark, dead wood, earth and moss, based on our research into how plants and animals live in the forest.

Sketches of the Nest Chair.

Nest Chair

Made with branches, wire mesh and paper as a possible nesting place for birds. Openings in the structure suggest a use shared beyond the human body.

Sketches of the Creepy Crawly Coffee Table.

Creepy Crawly Coffee Table

Bark, twigs and layered wood make a small habitat for insects. Inspired by insect hotels, it is both furniture and shelter.

Sketches of the Mud Pit Carpet.

Mud Pit Carpet

Soil, humus, moss and plant matter bring underground ecosystems indoors. Its irregular form ties the room to the natural ground.

Spatial experience

We planned the visitor’s route through the room, then tested it in a scale prototype.

Visitor journey plan
Visitor journey plan: chimney entry, pathway, chair, table and carpet.

The route through the room: chimney, pathway, chair, table and carpet.

Prototype
Scale prototype of the room with the Nest Chair, Creepy Crawly Coffee Table and Mud Pit Carpet.

A scale model of the room and its three pieces, used to test the route.

Entry

Visitors come in through a chimney-like route, shifting from human resident to non-human visitor.

Encounter

They move through a room where familiar furniture has become a habitat for birds, insects and underground life.

Immersion

Projection, sound, natural materials and scent make the room feel less like a display and more like a shared home.

Making process

Each piece was built by hand from the materials it was meant to host life in, then brought together in the room.

Nest Chair
Building the Nest Chair from branches on the studio floor. The finished Nest Chair.
Coffee Table
A cardboard test layer of the coffee table. Laser-cutting the table’s layered wood. The finished Creepy Crawly Coffee Table from above.
Mud Pit Carpet
Cutting the carpet’s irregular shape in the workshop. The finished Mud Pit Carpet under the coffee table.
The room
The team setting up the room with ivy and branches. The printed invitation card with a QR code to the promotional video. Testing the projected forest view.

Final outcome

The final outcome was an immersive room tour that invited visitors inside a speculative multispecies home. Before entering, they watched a short promotional video introducing the room and its idea of co-living, then went in and explored the space in person.

Floor plan of the room: 01 chimney entry bottom right, 02 window top right, 03 coffee table, 04 chair, 05 carpet, with a dashed route between them.
Floor plan

Immersive experience

  • Warm yellow lighting made the room cozy and welcoming. A projector showed a forest outside the window, extending the room into the landscape beyond.
  • Speakers played the sound of insects in the forest, a subtle layer of immersion.
  • Visitors could clearly smell soil, leaves and fresh grass, so the space felt closer to a living environment.
Looking into the room through the chimney entry.

01Chimney entry

Visitors crouched through a chimney-like opening, a playful shift in perspective from human resident to non-human visitor.

The window with a projected forest view.

02Window

A projected forest view outside the window connected the room to the wider ecosystem beyond it.

The Creepy Crawly Coffee Table in the room.

03Creepy Crawly Coffee Table

A small habitat for insects, suggesting everyday furniture could support other forms of life too.

The Nest Chair with a bird’s nest among its branches.

04Nest Chair

Designed with nesting in mind: a piece of furniture birds might also live in.

The Mud Pit Carpet of soil, leaves and moss.

05Mud Pit Carpet

Soil, leaves and organic matter brought indoors, drawing attention to the less visible life underground.

Reflection

The team seen from low among the branches, an insect’s view.
An insect’s view
The team seen from above through branches, a bird’s view.
A bird’s view
People sitting on a log, seen from among the leaf litter — the view of a creature living underground.
A worm’s view

Seeing ourselves from other species’ perspectives

“We are all lichens now.”

Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble

I was very inspired by this line. To me it suggests that humans are never fully independent or self-sufficient: we are shaped by our relationships with other people, with nature, and with the many species we live alongside.

Although the project began as a non-human design exploration, it also became a way to question human-centered thinking and to open up more room for empathy, care and coexistence.

Visitors exploring the finished room on presentation day.

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