Are these tube homes the answer to Hong Kong's housing problem?

Imagine life inside a concrete water pipe, complete with all the mod-cons of a cozy home and plenty of natural light to boot.

This type of micro home is exactly what Hong Kong-based architectural firm James Law Cybertecture has invented.

The tube homes are 16 feet (5 meters) long, and have a 7-foot (2.1-meter) diameter on the inside. Covering between 100 and 120 square feet (9 to 11 square meters) of floorspace, they each feature a fold-out bed, a fridge and microwave, and a bathroom. Access to the structures is controlled by smartphones.
The OPod was unveiled in Hong Kong last month at the city's DesignInspire exhibition.
"I came up with the idea behind the OPod when I was on a construction site," says James Law, chairman and CEO of the firm. "I walked into one of them (a concrete water pipe), and I was surprised by how big they were."
Law decided to create starter homes inside these structures.
"I thought: wouldn't it be a really great idea to utilize these leftover concrete water tubes to create vast, micro architecture -- that could be at very low cost, and also quite interesting for young people in Hong Kong?"
It took the firm one month to develop the idea.

"We need to live small in the city, because we can't afford the space -- however, it doesn't mean that we have to live in a squalid, or inhuman environment like subdivided flats or cage homes."

Low-cost housing

Law says the challenges presented by Hong Kong's unaffordable housing market was one of the factors that drove him to design the OPod.
In Hong Kong, the average property price per square foot costs $1,592, as of December 2017. With space at a premium, "nano flats" are not uncommon in the city. In 2017, newly built apartments of 180 square feet (17 square meters) went on sale for between $203,400 and $211,100.

Then there are Hong Kong's notorious cage homes: a small apartment sectioned into multiple tiny dwellings made of wooden planks and wire mesh.


CNN

Comments

Jackie Chan
Then there are Hong Kong's notorious cage homes: a small apartment sectioned into multiple tiny dwellings made of wooden planks and wire mesh.

2018-02-16 18:34:55

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