MNN - Mother Nature Network

In the past when I've featured shoebox-sized dwellings, there’s often been something nifty/innovative about them. Case in point is “The Domestic Transformer,” Hong Kong-based architect Gary Chang’s 330-square-foot, 24-room apartment. Additionally, many, like the EDGE in Wisconsin, have been deliberately petite prefab vacation retreats and cabins. Either that or the inhabitants are living happily (and willingly) on a full-time basis in confined quarters as some sort of grand statement/experiment in downsized/clutter-free living. This is the case with the Debra and Gary Jordan, a couple residing in a 320-square-foot shotgun-style shack in Arkansas with their 13-year-old son. 

 

There’s nothing really nifty/innovative, vacation-y, or happy about Yang’s living situation and in the video embedded below she’s candid about the obvious hardships — including sleeping on the floor and squabbling with her husband — that come with living in such a cramped space. And she’s not alone.

According to the Wall Street Journal, apartments subdivided into miniscule rental units (“cage” and “coffin” units are as small as 30 square feet) are not entirely new in overcrowded Hong Kong where housing costs continue to rise — average home prices have jumped 76 percent since 2008 — and the city’s priced-out working classes continue to squeeze into increasingly smaller living spaces. And in case you were wondering, about 480 150-square-foot apartments like Yang's $481/per month Kowloon rental apartment could fit into Pensmore. 

Click here to read more about Hong Kong’s dire — and often dangerous — affordable housing crisis and what’s being done by the housing officials to resolve it.