An impressive creation from Hong Kong architect Gary Chang that illustrates several important ideas for simply improving the way people live. Chang's turned his shoebox apartment into a 24(!) room dwelling through a series of easily sliding walls that peel back or come forward to reveal bathrooms, bookshelves, linen closets, a bed, a kitchen and more. On top of all of that, he's used mirrors not just to give the illusion of more space, but to drastically reduce the need for electrical lighting.
This is the sort of innovation I was talking about in Durable Infection. Everyone needs a spot to live, and as cities increasingly become the dominant form of human habitation, affordable personal space is going to become an issue. So Chang's creation fulfills a basic need, and does so without requiring (the video refers to his sliding wall space as "futuristic," but it's extremely basic technology just applied in a new way) anything particularly fancy or expensive. Due to the energy saving measures, I could see it actually saving more resources than a traditional apartment.
It will be interesting to see how long it will take for an enterprising contractor or developer to start offering such apartments in other cities of the world (hello New York). I'd be interested in something similar, and I doubt I'm alone in that.
Comments