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The micro apartment
The problem of access to housing for users of large cities increases year after year and more, if we talk about one of the cities with the highest population density per square kilometer in the world, Hong Kong (China), which also due to its geography and urban planning has very little land to build on. The housing problem is acute and for this many architects are reinventing and designing new concepts to optimize the space of the houses and be more economically accessible to the population.
As a data, according to Bloomberg, the city of Hong Kong leads the ranking of least accessible housing in the world as we can see in the following map:
Hong Kong-based architect James Law has designed an unusual solution to create micro apartments temporary spaces between the narrow spaces of the buildings: The so-called OPod dwellings.
The micro housing OPod consists of a modern apartment installed within a standard concrete pipe section made up of two modules; The first one for the bedroom and the second module that houses the kitchen, bathroom and shower. (We can learn more about adaptive building from the modular architecture article)
Essentially it is a more elegant version of that hotel located in Austria called Tubohotel or the Pipes Hotel in Cambodia. We can see what a standard room in these hotels looks like in the following image:
This time, the concrete pipe has longer dimensions (2.5 meters in diameter) that include improvements in its comforts; like a bench that turns into a bed, several open shelves, a mini fridge, microwave or a bathroom with a small shower.
They are actually independent modules that fit together and that together form these micro houses.
The shape of the pipes makes it possible to take advantage of uncomfortable urban space and they can be stacked vertically in alleys or buildings. Because they are so heavy - each apartment weighs almost 20 tons - they do not require brackets or bolts to secure the pods together, keeping installation costs quite low.
“Although for many this type of project may be an idea that does not fit their housing standards, the reality is that it can be a fairly decent and low-cost solution to alleviate Hong Kong's affordable housing problems, considering both the characteristics of current homes such as their prices »… According to the architect.
Also of interest is the article of the caravan that looks like a luxury apartment. Comfort, luxury and design at the service of traveling
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