Problem: shortage of affordable space for hotel and dormitory accommodation in Hong Kong.
Solution: space age capsule pods complete with WiFi, TV and a pull-down privacy screen with an image of the earth.
I’m not sure how that earth image will help you get a good night’s sleep but it photographs well.
The makers of these steel and plastic, fire resistant pods claim that their model is the progeny of the cross-breeding of existing Japanese pods with astronaut cockpits. I want to therefore call them cockpods, but I know I shouldn’t.
They will rent for about $30 a night, a fraction of what you would pay for that grotty room in Tsim Sha Tsui, where the walls have been decorated with the guts of mosquitoes and the spittle of generations of slobs.
Aside from the space-terror feel of this creative solve (I’ve seen Alien too many times), they will probably prove popular with students and tourists, and could very well solve another critical social issue in Hong Kong – the housing of the poor.
The pods are a vast upgrade on the dehumanizing steel cages, which slumlords have rented out to the disadvantaged for half a century.
(Cage apartment photo courtesy of Global Sociology. Pod photos courtesy of Galaxy Stars.)
Tags: cage apartments, Capsule pods in Hong Kong, creative problem solving, low-income housing, over-crowding
In the last image they look like rows of microwaves… Oh no no, I am no microwave dinner. I would still prefer the chicken cages.
The cages make you think of barbies then mate?
Intersting concept. As humans we developed in the womb a confined space and now due to over-crowding we are reverting back, living in one.
I have to agree though the new pods look more hygienic,perhaps overall health may inprove due to the improved living conditions. I can’t believe people live in cages! It just seems so inhumane regardless of the differences in “standards of living” country to country cages just shouldn’t be acceptable.
Avery those cages are even more inhumane than they look when you consider they are largely used to house the elderly who don’t have families. I witnessed them during my years living in Hong Kong. Not a fun place to be old and poor. The cost of housing in Hong Kong is among the highest in the world with land at such a premium, so this seems sadly inevitable.