About CHK Arquitectura and these small house notes
CHK Arquitectura draws small houses. The notes on chkarquitectura.com record the decisions behind those drawings at the level of detail a reader needs to argue with the decision, which means every recommendation carries a dimension.
What size of house does CHK Arquitectura design?
CHK Arquitectura designs houses between 60 m² and 120 m²: infill dwellings on urban plots 5.5 m to 8.0 m wide, replacement houses on rural sites, and reorganisations that keep the existing footprint. A plan of 96 m² carries no spare area, so a corridor drawn 300 mm too wide removes 300 mm from a bedroom.
Work at that scale rewards precision over gesture. On a plot 6.5 m wide, 450 mm external walls take 23.5 percent of the footprint before a single partition is drawn, one staircase takes 6.8 m² across two levels, and circulation should stay between 8 and 12 percent of gross internal area. Three constraints of that size leave roughly 62 m² of a 96 m² house for rooms, and every article here began as a number that had to be defended to a client, a contractor or a building control officer.
What conventions do these notes follow?
Every note on chkarquitectura.com gives building components in millimetres, rooms and plots in metres and square metres, angles in degrees, and thermal performance in W/m²K. Codes are named wherever a figure depends on one, because a riser of 200 mm passes UK Approved Document K and fails the Spanish CTE DB SUA ceiling of 185 mm.
- Dimensions in millimetres for components, metres and square metres for rooms and plots, degrees for angles, W/m²K for wall performance.
- Solar geometry calculated for latitude 40 degrees north, where the noon sun stands at 73.4 degrees in June and 26.6 degrees in December.
- Codes named in full where a figure depends on one. UK Approved Document K and the Spanish CTE DB SUA are the two rule sets cited most often, and the two disagree by 1340 mm of stair run for the same 2900 mm of height.
- Tradeoffs stated in the same paragraph as the recommendation. A reveal splayed at 45 degrees recovers daylight from 87 percent to 97 percent and needs four bevelled lining pieces instead of four square ones, and both halves belong in the sentence.
- No product recommendations and no sponsored content. Manufacturers are named only where a generic description would leave the specification ambiguous.
Which sheets make up the series?
Four sheets cover the decisions in the order a small house project makes them: sheet 01 on the plan and its circulation, sheet 02 on staircase geometry, sheet 03 on thick walls and window reveals, sheet 04 on the internal courtyard. Each sheet carries the dimensions, the site tolerances and the tradeoff behind every recommendation.
| Sheet | Question the sheet answers | Headline figures |
|---|---|---|
| 01, Plan | How is a small house plan under 120 square metres organised? | Circulation 8 to 12 percent of floor area; double bedroom 3000 mm by 3300 mm; 450 mm walls take 23.5 percent of an 8.0 m by 6.5 m footprint |
| 02, Stairs | What compact staircase dimensions still feel safe? | Riser 180 mm with a going of 260 mm, pitch 34.7 degrees; footprint 3.4 m² per level; headroom 2000 mm |
| 03, Reveals | How deep should a window reveal be in a 450 mm wall? | A square 350 mm reveal costs 13 percent of daylight at 4 m; a 45 degree splay returns 97 percent; wall build ups 0.18 to 1.7 W/m²K |
| 04, Courtyard | How big does an internal courtyard need to be on a narrow plot? | Courtyard 3.4 m by 3.0 m, 10.2 m²; surface fall 1.5 to 2 percent; two 100 mm outlets against 0.21 litres per second |
Numbers published on chkarquitectura.com are working figures from built projects, not a substitute for the building regulations in force on a given site. Check every dimension against the code that applies in your jurisdiction before building anything, because a riser of 200 mm is legal in one country and unlawful in the next.