FUNNY FEELING

100 photographs of 100 square feet rooms shot in Hong Kong by photographer Michael Wolf. In a previous post, I mentioned my interest in smaller, more efficient living spaces. (Correction: Seth Godin coined the phrase "Small is the new big", not Glenn Reynolds.) Looking at these photos, it reminds me how efficiency was a "green" way of living but a cost-efficient and space-saving way of living. Each room is cluttered but with the essentials: bed, fan, refridgerator, rice cooker, television, and sometimes a dining/make-shift mahjong table. When you live in a small space, decisions have to made on each purchase. Because you have extra food storage, the food you buy needs to be eaten in a few days. No room for Costco members here. How small can someone live comfortably?

While these photos show Hong Kong, city dwellers in New York's Chinatown live in similar arrangements. Looking for cheap rent in Manhattan led me inside these apartments for a peek. One tiny studio apartment can easily holds four residents. Residents, mostly men, sleep in shifts so that only two are in the apartment at the same time. At $100 a month, it's hard to beat.