Living Micro: Single Residents Embrace Tiny Apartments

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec13/microapartment_09-22.html

I watched the video on PBS.org about these new tiny apartments. The apartments are typically less than 400 square feet each, and everything, except for the bathroom, is all in one room. These apartments utilize the concept of transformable furniture in order to conserve space. These apartments are starting to pop up in some of the larger cities in North America, including New York, Seattle, San Francisco, and Vancouver, Canada, just to name a few.

These apartments are targeted toward younger people who are living on their own and don't need much space. Seeing how these apartments are being built in bigger cities, the fact that they are being called "affordable" is definitely relative to the prices of regular sized apartments in those cities. In order to be able to live in one of these apartments, you would definitely have to decide what are true necessities or not.

The video informs us that these apartments are still in experimental stages. Many cities are trying to figure out ways to adapt to the increasing population, and this is one of the ideas. Although these apartments seem to be a great idea for these larger cities, some people are concerned about the fact that these new apartments will cause a lack of housing for middle-class, lower income individuals. In some communities, people are concerned that "these units crowd too many people together and that they make neighborhoods less stable as young people come and go".

Personally, I believe that these apartments are a great idea for single people who are living by themselves and don't spend a ton of time in their apartments. I don't think I would be able to live in one because I personally wouldn't want to live on my own, especially in a big city such as New York. Only time will tell whether or not these new tiny apartments will become a common thing around North America.