This weekend a friend showed me an “office shed” that he was considering building in his back yard. It spurred a conversation regarding micro homes and apartments and their growing popularity here and abroad. Similar in size to office sheds, small homes are generally being sought by those environmentally conscious people who want to have the smallest environmental impact, but when does small become inhumane. Since construction uses over 40% of all industrial material in the world and is one of the most wasteful industries, some want to improve the environment by being less wasteful. These along with the exorbitant price tags that can come with any property with in a city, buyers also are looking for cheaper alternatives. In our area the picture to the right is a small efficiency home that sold in May on C St in North East DC. This home is a total of 371 square feet with one full bathroom and was listed in May for $248,500 and with the booming spring market this year sold in a few short days for $280,000.

A growing trend in some US cities is the micro apartment, like this picture of a new development in New York City. This 100 square foot apartment is barley larger then a prison cell and rents for $1,275 a month (Article and Picture provided by the New York Times). Innovations in furniture, appliances, and home decor can allow residents of small apartments like this to live comfortably but at a cost.

These small apartments have been around for a while in many other countries, particularly in high-density cities like Hong Kong and Tokyo. The New York Times reported recently that roughly 170,000 in Hong Kong live in spaces barely the size of a bed and with no room to actually stand inside of their own home. These are homes or apartments that have been subdivided multiple times to give only very small places for residents to sleep. Now industrial warehouses, basically a storage units, in Hong Kong are being transformed into micro living spaces. (I can’t bring myself to calling it an apartment).

At what point does a small living space become too small or just inhumane? I guess for many people the alternative is living on the street homeless.

With little space many cities need to innovate, and the 2013 City Lab summit is the perfect venue and is currently being held now in New York, this summit looks for “Urban Solutions to Global Challenges”. Cities across the world face the same challenges of population growth, infrastructure, housing, and the many other issues associated with its residents.

(Picture found in The Atlantic Cities, Provided by Bobby Yip/Reuters)