SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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
(Score: 3, Informative) by RedBear on Wednesday March 29 2017, @03:56PM (2 children)
A bit of perspective from the world of RVs and the "tiny house" movement: There are many people who live full-time in various sizes of RVs, from very small bumper-hitch towable travel trailers to 25,000lb fifth-wheel trailers that need to be towed with medium-duty trucks (just shy of semi-tractor size vehicles). 44 sq yds is nearly 400 sq ft which is actually quite a lot of room. There are some pretty sweet fifth-wheel RVs with multiple slide-outs that I would love to live in full-time, and many people do, even with families. Just google "fifth wheel interior" and prepare to be amazed.
Above a limit of about 430 sq ft the RV industry no longer wants you to market it as a "mobile" RV and you enter a category they call "park model" RVs. They're really just made to be towed to a permanent location where they will have their wheels removed or otherwise be modified to become a permanent residential home with typical residential utility hookups and appliances not designed to go on the road beyond the initial move.
The tiny house movement has many examples of stationary or towable houses that are livable for one person down to around 130 sq ft, and that's smaller than the minimum 16 sq m in the summary. Many tiny homes are sub-300 sq ft with couples living in them long-term. Point being, certain notions have long been put forth by building code commissions about what the minimum necessary space is for people to live in while maintaining good health, but in reality it is entirely up to the person or persons living in that space and the opportunities the area provides for spending time outside that space. People can often get by just fine, and some are even much happier, in very compact living spaces. Those who don't like it and feel the need for more space end up moving out to suburbia (or further out to "exurbia").
A balance will always be struck between people who are willing to put up with what some might consider a "cramped" space in the middle of a bustling metropolis with a short commute to work or shopping, versus a horrible long daily commute out to an isolated home in suburbia with no nearby shopping, dining or entertainment. So-called "closet" apartments are already the reality in places like Tokyo and New York City, and have been for a long time. Based on the way I've seen many people living quite happily in tiny homes and apartments, I'm not sure that it does a place like London any real good trying to artificially limit the ability of people to find affordable housing in a high-density metropolitan environment.
YouTube is chock full of really neat "tiny home" videos for anyone interested in seeing people cleverly living in remarkably small spaces.
.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday March 29 2017, @11:49PM
My main concern is that living in something that small, in London weather, will drive the least resilient people absolutely postal.
Let's hope they walk to work, because that kind of population density is also bad for the roads.
But I'm aware that 16m^2 is a lot more than what millions get in Hong Kong or Singapore.
And I've got a coworker somehow working from home, where "home" is an expando RV with 3 kids...
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday March 30 2017, @02:55PM
If the apartment costs 10x and is smaller. Then perhaps mobile RV home is the better solution?
Think of all the cash the rent-seeking bank and landlords will miss out on.