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One thing I notice looking at the descriptions is the extent to which technology plays a role in making these sorts of acommodations more feasible. Air conditio
by gwern 8y ago
One thing I notice looking at the descriptions is the extent to which technology plays a role in making these sorts of acommodations more feasible. Air conditioning, of course, but also computers.
If you look at photos of Tokyo apartments from the early '90s (eg _Tokyo: A Certain Style_, https://www.gwern.net/docs/japanese/1997-tsuzuki-tokyoacertainstyle.pdf https://www.gwern.net/docs/japanese/1997-tsuzuki-tokyoacerta... ), which were often photos of people making very similar tradeoffs for the same reasons (cheaper rent in the heart of Tokyo but then-relatively-small apartments, often one-room), the apartments are much larger than these but also far more cluttered, looking like they have hoarding disorders. Stereo sets, TVs, landline phones, walls or giant stacks of manga, vinyl records, cassette tapes, reference books, books in general, musical instruments (he photographed some musicians and music students), visual arts equipment - all of these take up an enormous amount of space collectively. But they can all be replaced by a desktop+large monitor and a smartphone and perhaps a digital input device like a tablet or keyboard for arts. (Even the desktop is physically far smaller than in the '90s.)
And that's precisely what the photographed apartments here do: you see desktop computers, a small handful of books which perhaps are sentimental or favorites, and much of the bulk of the space seems to now be used up by clothes, with food-related items being the next biggest category.
This raises the question of what could be done to reduce those? Food patterns will probably shift further to takeout/online purchases because of the enormous investments in logistics for rapid delivery (I'm particularly impressed when I read about JD.com in China, and Tokyo is a logical megalopolis to reach similar delivery speeds), but clothes are a tougher nut to crack. New fabrics which are more dirt/odor-resistant to allow more wear? Reversible clothes which provide '2 in 1'? Fewer dresses and more mix-and-match? Rental clothing services powered by cheap delivery?
- ohithereyou 8y agoI don't know what the soil is like where these tiny apartments are, but perhaps a basement with lockable storage/closet? The apartment I have in my midwestern city came with a closet in a shared room that is locked by my door key that I can use to store things outside of my apartment. Bulk food storage and clothing storage could then be moved there, assuming proper ventilation.
- gwern 8y agoThat's not a bad idea. I wonder why apartment buildings don't routinely offer storage space in their basements to begin with? It doesn't seem like they typically do that much with them, not even parking garages.
- soared 8y agoThe apartments I've lived in in the west/midwest do, but I know that in Cali many buildings don't have basements due to earthquakes.
- ohithereyou 8y agoIn Florida you get a twofer of reasons: 1) most of Florida is barely above sea level, so digging down any significant distance results in hitting the water table 2) areas that are not right at the sea level are often prone to sinkholes
- soared 8y agoAwesome observation. I think some space could be reduced by moving it to an office/gym. I know friends of friends who live our of their van near their work. They store most of their clothes in a gym locker and some clothes in a work locker. They shower and use the bathroom at the gym or work as well. That effectively leaves food, sleeping, and entertainment left for their living space. You could move food storage to communal kitchens (or rentable commercial kitchens). I don't know if any exist for this use case, but I do know as a small business you can rent out a commercial kitchen for 1 day or so a month to make bulk batches of product to sell. (I did some work for a packaged quinoa company).
- GFischer 8y agoAs someone who lived in such an apartment in the past, computers are the main thing. I wished I had air conditioning back then. I agree, It is pretty incredible how many things have been miniaturized - thanks to smartphones I no longer travel with a laptop for leisure for example, I´m travelling halfway around the globe next month with only a carry-on luggage. E-book readers such as the Kindle are another amazing advancement.