[reaperducer]

Oohh look at these people with more than one room!

I feel ya.

Back when I was running a one-man startup, I had myself, my wife, and a cat in 450 square feet. Except when I was out gladhanding potential clients, I worked from my bed.

At least back then, I could decamp for Starbucks if I got the crazies. But today's studio apartment dwellers are really screwed. Especially if you live somewhere hot, somewhere cold, or a city that removed all of the public benches to "combat" homelessness.

[derekp7]

I would think that the perfect setup for that size would involve a queen-sized loft bed, but with a flip-down catwalk so that getting out of bed, you swing your feet down and they hit the catwalk at what would feel like normal floor height. Then steps at the end of the catwalk to get off it. Then have the steps and catwalk flip up during the day to give good access under the bed. On the underside would be a divider running the length of the bed in the middle, separating the two halves. Connected to that divider would be a good office desk on either side (so two people could work from home yet have their personal space).

I'm surprised that there hasn't been a real advertising push for solutions such as this during the last year. I can visualize it and probably draft up plans for it (when I do woodworking I always do my own plans). But I haven't seen this exact concept anywhere.

[coldtea]

>I had myself, my wife, and a cat in 450 square feet

So, like the average "family with 2 kids" size of house in most of the world :-)

[reaperducer]

The average global house size is much larger than that. China has the smallest at 500 square feet, so my point stands.

[ciceryadam]

House size maybe, but that leaves out bunch of other types of living. Not just apartments, but slum huts, refugee camp tents, and so on.

[8ytecoder]

In houses that size, rooms convert from living -> dining -> study -> bedroom multiple times a day. Most households would have a clear time on when the mat comes out at night or when food is served or when the TV is turned on or off so the kids can study ...etc. At least that's how it was for us.

[chordalkeyboard]

Subsistence agriculturalists make up 25% of the world's population and many of them (probably all) require more than 500 ft^2.

[coldtea]

If the idea of "subsistence agriculturalist" is a US farmer, yes. Others are lucky to have a hut or some such structure.

In the developing world (and heck, in Southern Europe and the Balkans too, as recently as the 60s-70s) farmers used to live, whole family (extended one at that) in ~ 500 sq ft houses... One typical case was that brothers e.g. would often sleep in the same bed for 1 person, one with feet in one direction, the other in the opposite.

[chordalkeyboard]

> If the idea of "subsistence agriculturalist" is a US farmer, yes. Others are lucky to have a hut or some such structure.

Not lucky, in fact it is the norm for them to have a dwelling. Adobe/mud or some other local construction technique.

> In the developing world (and heck, in Southern Europe and the Balkans too, as recently as the 60s-70s) farmers used to live, whole family (extended one at that) in ~ 500 sq ft houses... One typical case was that brothers e.g. would often sleep in the same bed for 1 person, one with feet in one direction, the other in the opposite.

Thats one example, in parts of Asia they have more room.

[LegitShady]

yes, even setting up a startup, he was not in a slum hut or a refugee camp.

[sjtindell]

I’m picturing someone in a Hong Kong “apartment” cage saying, “Wait you guys have whole rooms?”

[KMag]

My 350 square foot studio in a luxury building in Hong Kong served my wife and I fine for the first year of our marriage. (A last minute opportunity came up for her to join me a year earlier than expected, and the brand new luxury tower next door flooded the market and made it difficult to find someone to take over my lease.)

The two of us now live in a 700 square foot 4 BR, where we use one BR as a walk-in closet and another as a study. Our landlord claims 13 family members lived in this unit when he was a kid.

[refurb]

700 sq ft and four bedrooms? I’m in a 700 sq ft two bed/two bath and the 2nd bedroom is tiny. I couldn’t imagine how small they must be to to get four of them.

[nicolas_t]

Typically in Hong Kong, Bedrooms for those kind of apartments are roughly 40-50 square feet. You can put a bed and a night stand and that's it.

Also a lot of 700 sq ft apartment with 3-4 bedrooms have 2 bathrooms which further reduces the total available space. It's quite common for a family of 5-6 (2 kids, parents plus grand parents) + 1 live-in helper to live in such an apartment. The live-in helper usually gets a windowless closet for her room (so around 21 sq ft) that's next to the kitchen (I have a hard time with the kind of living conditions offered to helpers but I guess it's really a shitty situation in terms of space for everyone). This is the living situation of a middle class family able to afford a 4,500 usd/month apartment and a 700 usd/month live-in helper (there's no daycare available in hk which is why a lot end up getting a live-in helper after having kids).

With covid, schools have been closed and people had to work from home making things much harder.

[greggman3]

450sqft is large for many people. Tokyo has > 100k listings for places under 160sqft

[plumeria]

What about public parks? You can always sit in the grass (not in winter however).