Back in 2009, Treehugger founder Graham Hill bought two teeny tiny apartments in NYC’s Soho, with the big plan of creating the architectural embodiment of a simpler, streamlined life. Keen to challenge the bigger-better-more mentality that’s seen us all weighed down with increasing debt and decreasing space, he launched a competition to transform 420 square feet of real estate into an uber-low-footprint vision of the future. Setting out his aims on creative collaboration platform Jovoto, Hill’s first LifeEdited apartment was to hold 12 hungry mouths, two overnight guests, a home office and a theatre, with environmental credentials coming out of its bijou ears.

Obviously not ones to shy from a challenge, winning architecture students Catalin Sandu and Adrian Iancu promptly came up with more innovative storage solutions than you could shake a foldable, eco-friendly stick at. Unveiled in May this year, everything in the apartment – from the tiny, energy-saving fridge to the stove-replacing hotplates – lives out the LifeEdited philosophy. In an apartment that’s noteworthy for its novelty value, it’s easy to forget that at its heart lies a belief that’s pretty convincing – that owning less stuff we don’t really need could lead to more happiness, fatter wallets and a healthier environment.