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posted by on Wednesday March 29 2017, @01:10AM   Printer-friendly
from the if-it-can-fit-a-bed,-it's-fine dept.

Hundreds of tiny studio flats, many smaller than a budget hotel room, are to be squeezed into an eleven-storey block in north London as its developer takes advantage of the government’s relaxation of planning regulations.

Plans for Barnet House, used by the London borough of Barnet’s housing department, reveal that 96% of the 254 proposed flats will be smaller than the national minimum space standards of 37 sq metres (44 sq yards) for a single person.

The tiniest homes will be 16 sq metres – 40% smaller than the average Travelodge room. [...] In the surrounding area, studio flats of a similar scale to most planned at Barnet House sell for around £180,000 and rent for around £800 per month.

[...] Office buildings in Croydon have also been converted into studios with floor areas of as little as 15 sq metres under the Tory deregulation. Housing experts have attacked the relaxation of planning regulations as a “race to the bottom”, but ministers insist the measure is helping to deliver vital new housing, and point out that more than 10,000 new homes were created from office buildings last year.

Under the “permitted development” system, developers who convert offices into homes do not have to meet minimum floor area standards, considered by researchers to be important for health, educational attainment and family relationships. Neither do they have to include any affordable housing.

Source: The Guardian


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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:22AM (4 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:22AM (#485620) Journal
    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @06:12AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @06:12AM (#485704)

    Combo shower/toilet. Pretty interesting design concept.

    I kinda like it. Just that many things fewer to clean, the area around the toilet gets a washdown when the shower gets used, and a closed lid lets the toilet be used as a resting stool while showering.

    I fail to see why someone was so disappointed. Looked more efficient to me.

    Had I been involved in the design, I think I would have rotated the bowl 90 degrees so it faced the shower. Should I desire a freshly rinsed bowl, I could always open the lid and run the shower on it for a few seconds....as well as doing this while waiting for the hot water to arrive.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday March 29 2017, @12:37PM (2 children)

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday March 29 2017, @12:37PM (#485840) Journal

      We had that combination in our suite of rooms in the dorm in China, the toilet under the shower. Except it was an Asian-style toilet (a trough in the floor you squat over). More than once when you were rinsing your face you would accidentally step into the toilet drain, which is one place in the world where you don't want your foot to be. Then there was our roommate the 65-year old businessman from Boston who was there on the Mandarin-immersion program because he did a lot of business with China, who brought a CostCo size pack of soap with him and within the first two weeks lost the entire thing by dropping the bars in the shower and watching as they ping-ponged around the chamber until they found the lowest point of potential energy--the toilet drain. His cursing coming through the walls put us in stitches. He had the additional problem that he was tall and large and couldn't really use the toilet in the orientation you're meant to and had to squat side-saddle, which position unfortunately placed the drawers he had lowered around his ankles more or less within the trajectory of his turds, and more than once wound up landing a fresh one in his underpants.

      So the toilet in the shower design made for good comedy, but wasn't very useful otherwise.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Thursday March 30 2017, @02:12AM

        by art guerrilla (3082) on Thursday March 30 2017, @02:12AM (#486299)

        ! ? ! ? ! ?
        what next, a combo bidet/drinking fountain ? ? ?
        geez louise, i am surprised every person using such an arrangement didn't come down with cholera or something...
        hell, poop aerosolizes (sp?) and gets over everything in a 'modern' bathroom; here you have a shower splashing poo residue (residoo?) up on your feet/legs, etc...
        day-am, just sounds like the worst of both worlds, i'd rather wait for the next rain shower, thank you... and that tree over there looks like a fine tree to pee/poop behind, hope the leaves aren't an irritant...

      • (Score: 1) by butthurt on Sunday April 02 2017, @06:07AM

        by butthurt (6141) on Sunday April 02 2017, @06:07AM (#487838) Journal

        A combination a Western-style toilet was fine, in my experience.