4 ms·

I love the concept of micro-housing and have looked into micro-houses quite extensively. The biggest issue with them is of course zoning laws and the only easy

I love the concept of micro-housing and have looked into micro-houses quite extensively. The biggest issue with them is of course zoning laws and the only easy way to actually live in one is to buy a plot of land way out in the country. If you want to live in a city cheaply, you're pretty much forced to have roommates. That's fine but roommates are not always great and personally I would much rather live on my own. So what are the options? Well, the cheapest studio I could find in my area (Ann Arbor, MI) that is within a 10-15 minute to downtown (as my current place is) is almost double what I'm paying currently for a bedroom in a shared house. Ridiculous! As a young 20 something, I don't have a family, I don't need space. When I'm home, I'm at my desk or sleeping. I view a city in the same way as a phone being an extension of your brain, the city is an extension of your home. If I need a bunch of space, there are plenty of places I can go to get that. Is micro-housing and super dense living for everyone? Of course not! But for many young people, it's pretty damn great to have an affordable to sleep. Build 'em high, build 'em dense.

Spooky23 11y ago
The reason that "evil zoning" makes building crap like this hard to build is because the long game for property like this is that it devolves into a flophouse. When time rolls on and the six-figure people embracing dorm life gets old, or the workers are "disrupted" into low-paying gigs, this type of housing will turn into typical SRO housing in the US -- people on public assistance with nowhere else to go.
- ghaff 11y ago
  I'm very suspicious that this particular trend that's driven by well-paid 20 somethings who just can't bring themselves to live anywhere but in the trendy areas of a handful of coastal US cities is going to be looked back upon as a somewhat amusing transitory early 21st century phenomenon. Smaller self-contained apartments are less ridiculous but I suspect that by the the time you take into account shared space like hallways, stairwells, possibly parking, and so forth dropping an apartment size from 800sf+ to 400-500sf doesn't let you offer it that much more cheaply at a huge cost in livability.
- skybrian 11y ago
  So even if the experiment fails, the housing will still be used. It seems rather efficient to me. They have to live somewhere right?
  - Spooky23 11y ago
    Very efficient, as long as they aren't next door to you!

Spooky23 11y ago

The reason that "evil zoning" makes building crap like this hard to build is because the long game for property like this is that it devolves into a flophouse. When time rolls on and the six-figure people embracing dorm life gets old, or the workers are "disrupted" into low-paying gigs, this type of housing will turn into typical SRO housing in the US -- people on public assistance with nowhere else to go.

ghaff 11y ago
I'm very suspicious that this particular trend that's driven by well-paid 20 somethings who just can't bring themselves to live anywhere but in the trendy areas of a handful of coastal US cities is going to be looked back upon as a somewhat amusing transitory early 21st century phenomenon. Smaller self-contained apartments are less ridiculous but I suspect that by the the time you take into account shared space like hallways, stairwells, possibly parking, and so forth dropping an apartment size from 800sf+ to 400-500sf doesn't let you offer it that much more cheaply at a huge cost in livability.
skybrian 11y ago
So even if the experiment fails, the housing will still be used. It seems rather efficient to me. They have to live somewhere right?
- Spooky23 11y ago
  Very efficient, as long as they aren't next door to you!