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Tiny homes, micro apartments, and small living spaces known as "coffin homes," "mosquito units," "gnat flats," and "cage beds" have popped up all over the world over the years.
As populations around the world grow rapidly and rents rise, some cities such as Hong Kong and San Francisco have seen a surge in constructing tiny, more affordable homes and apartments, Insider previously reported.
Some units are smaller than 200 square feet, earning them nicknames like "mosquito-size units," or, "gnat flats" in Chinese," The Associated Press reported.
And some living quarters are even smaller, like Hong Kong's 15-square-foot cage bed cubicles, which Benny Lan documented for The Guardianin 2017.
Take a look at some of the small places people around the world call home.
Bobby Yip/Reuters
Hong Kong has gained the reputation of having some of the tiniest and most costly apartments in the world, according to Bloomberg.
According to a 2021 Bloomberg report, some apartments in Hong Kong are smaller than parking spaces but cost almost half as much as an average home in the city.
As Reuters reported, the family pictured above lives in a "coffin home," which is named after its small size. Monthly rent in 2015 was around $487 for a 60-square-foot, sub-divided apartment in Hong Kong.
Tyrone Siu /Reuters
Housing costs are so high in Hong Kong that people like Donny Chan, who make a decent wage, pay a third of their salaries for micro apartments dubbed "gnat flats" for their size.
This 193-square-foot flat in Hong Kong is considered to be a micro-sized upscale apartment, according to The Associated Press.
"Every time that I step back into this (apartment) I kind of feel like a cat squeezed into a box," Donny Chan, an art director at a medical equipment maker at the time, told The Associated Press in 2017.
At the time, Chan paid $1,300 a month, about a third of his monthly salary, for the apartment, The Associated Press reported.
Critics of micro apartments say the small living spaces are widening inequality and promoting unfair living conditions, according to the same source.
Kin Cheung/AP Photo
Thousands of residents in Hong Kong live in shoebox-sized apartments known as "coffin homes" that are not even meant to house people, the Associated Press reported.
Cheung Chi-Fong, 80, cannot stretch out his legs while he sleeps in his tiny apartment in Hong Kong, The Associated Press reported in 2017.
These coffin homes are often just 15 square feet and house tenants of different ages and sexes, The Guardian reported.
According The Atlantic, an estimated 200,000 people in Hong Kong in 2017 were living in coffin homes.
Kin Cheung/AP Photo
Landlords in Hong Kong have also created "cubicle flats" by carving out individual living spaces from a single apartment, according to Getty.
The homeowner of this "cubicle flat" has managed to fit a shrine, fridge, and bed into his tiny space, according to Getty.
According to The Guardian, some landlords are able to partition a 400-square-foot apartment into 20 double-decker, 15-square-foot "coffins."
ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images
Other unique tiny home concepts have popped up in Hong Kong, like the OPod tube home, which is built out of a giant drainage pipe.
The idea for the OPod tube house is to create affordable housing inside giant concrete drainage pipes, Insider previously reported.
Architect James Law designed the 100-square-foot tiny house around the pipe's circular design, according to the architect's website. As Insider reported, each home would cost $15,000.
Vincent Yu/AP
In Tokyo, some 20-somethings have chosen to live in affordable tiny apartments so they can spend their money in other ways.
According to The Associated Press, Taiyo Akagi's 108-square-foot room cost him about $300 a month in 1998.
AP Photo/Koji Sasahara
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Tiny apartments in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, like this 72-square-foot home are tucked between alleys, food stalls, shops, and houses, Getty reported.
Often, tourists and civilians completely miss these spaces because of how small they are, photographer Thanh Nguyen reported for the Agence France-Presse.
THANH NGUYEN/AFP/Getty Images
And other homes are even smaller in Ho Chi Minh City. Kha Tu Ngo, for example, lives in a 22-square-foot "postage stamp-sized plot," according to Getty.
Getty reported in 2018 that the city's rapid development pushed some people into "postage stamp-sized plots" they call home.
According to the Agence France-Presse, these small homes could sell for as much as $22,000 in 2018.
THANH NGUYEN/AFP/Getty Images
Some students in Shanghai live in cheap, cramped apartments while studying for their graduate entrance exams, hoping that more education can bring them better opportunities, Getty reported.
The cramped conditions are ideally viewed as temporary before getting into graduate school, Getty reported.
Lara Farrar/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
Unable to afford the city's housing costs, Dai Haifei designed and built an egg-shaped house on the sidewalk of Beijing out of bamboo strips, steel bars, and waterproof materials, according to Reuters.
Dai Haifei gained popularity in 2010 when he lived for months in an egg-shaped house near his office in Beijing, Reuters reported.
The 6.5-foot tall pod cost him $964 to build at the time, China Daily reported.
STR/AFP/Getty Images
There's also been a rising tiny-house movement in Silivri, Turkey, as people look for affordable vacation housing away from bustling city centers.
In Silivri, Turkey, tiny homes saw a resurgence in popularity as people and families searched for affordable vacation rentals in nature during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Gulf Today in 2021.
According to the same source, the homes often range between $17,000 to $30,000 and are typically between 160 and 430 square feet.
OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images
And in Warsaw, Poland, one of the world's narrowest buildings is just 36 inches wide in some places, the Times of Israel reported.
Originally opened in Warsaw, Poland, as an artistic installation by architect Jakub Szczesny, the building is 36 inches wide at its narrowest point and cost $61,000 to build, according to the Times of Israel.
Israeli writer Etgar Keret used the tiny apartment as his home when he visited Warsaw up until 2016, the Times of Israel reported.
Kacper Pempe/REUTERS
Chris Heijmans and her husband Rick de Vries sold their home and moved into a yurt in Riel, the Netherlands, to save money during the COVID-19 pandemic, Getty reports.
The couple decided to sell Heijmans' house during the pandemic and live tiny in a yurt on farmlands in the south of the Netherlands to reduce costs and live more freely, according to Getty.
Sanne Derks/Getty Images
And a lack of affordable housing has pushed some people out of their homes and into their cars, Insider previously reported.
Jeff Slocum, who lives in the US, has lived out of his 2005 Chrysler Town and Country van since 2019, Insider reported in 2021.
After a neighborly dispute forced him out of his living situation, he moved into his van and stays in the upstate New York area. Slocum told Insider he faces many challenges since his car doesn't have a bathroom, kitchen, or heater.
Courtesy of Jeff Slocum
The international tiny-home transformation trend has also expanded to include people converting shipping containers into minimalist homes, Time reported.
Both individuals and companies are turning recycled, steel shipping containers into tiny homes, Time reported.
Daniel Bockwoldt/picture alliance/Getty Images
Amid a housing shortage, students at a university in Kiel, Germany, and a local welfare organization converted shipping containers into homes for students and people experiencing homelessness, Getty reports.
In 2021, two containers were converted into tiny homes for students and people experiencing homelessness in Kiel, Germany, Getty reported.
According to Kiel University's International Center, affordable housing is difficult to find in the north German city.
About 1,000 students were on a dormitory waiting list in 2021, Die Tageszeitung reported. The two container houses were rented for about $320 a month, according to Die Tageszeitung.
Axel Heimken/picture alliance/Getty Images
In Berlin, a lack of affordable housing has motivated some developers to build compact and modular living quarters for students.
This building is able to fit 153 one-bedroom apartments for students studying in Berlin, according to the technology park, Berlin Adlershof.
Britta Pedersen/picture alliance/Getty Images
A tiny home designed by two architecture students in Berlin utilizes its entire space, with built-in shelving and storage units all over the home.
The minimalist style is very popular in the tiny home community, and everything is meant to be easily hidden, including the bathroom, according to Getty.
Monika Skolimowska/picture alliance/Getty Images
In the US, some tiny-home villages in California provide housing for people experiencing homelessness.
In the US, tiny homes have become a potential solution for providing housing to people experiencing homelessness.
In October 2021, one of the country's largest tiny home villages opened in Los Angeles according to the Los Angeles Daily News. The Arroyo Seco Tiny Home Village has 117 units and 224 non-congregate beds for people, the same source reported. Each unit is 64 square feet, according to Insider.
Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News/Getty Images
Earlier in 2022, San Francisco debuted a 70-unit prefab tiny home village for unhoused people.
The first tiny-house village in San Francisco opened in March 2022. The nonprofit DignityMoves spent about $30,000 on each room, Insider previously reported.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the village is made of 70 tiny homes that are 64 square feet each.
DignityMoves
The Miracle Terrace Building in Anaheim, California, houses low-income elderly residents in tiny studio apartments, Getty reported.
The roughly 450-square-foot apartments house more than 100 low-income elderly residents, the majority of whom are Korean, according to Getty.
Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Renters could pay around $2,000 a month for a tiny, one-bedroom cottage in Orange County, California, where rent and home prices are sky-high.
The historical Shaffer Cottages were restored to house four different tenants, with each living unit no bigger than 500 square feet, according to The Orange County Register
During California's state-wide housing crisis in 2020, the Press Telegram reported, these rentals started at $1,775 a month, according to Shaffer Cottages' Facebook page.
Leonard Ortiz/Digital First Media/Orange County Register/Getty Images
And in Los Angeles, where space is at a premium, planning and clever storage can make compact spaces like this loft bedroom feel more open.
Fourteen-year-old Jay Segal plays with her dog in a tiny loft her father, Todd Segal, built, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Segal is a contractor who completely refitted the family's 625-square-foot home in Highland Park, California. The home isn't much bigger than a one-bedroom apartment, and it has one bedroom, one bathroom, and an open living-dining-kitchen area, the Los Angeles Times reports. And Segal's goal with the renovation was to make it feel bigger than it actually was.
Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Also in Los Angeles, the Healthy Housing Foundation installed a 352-square-foot model micro home to showcase unique solutions that could help solve the affordable housing crisis.
The small modular home was installed in the parking lot of the Madison Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles to demonstrate what alternative and innovative housing can look like in a busy city like Los Angeles, where low-income families and people experiencing homelessness need more affordable housing, according to the Healthy Housing Foundation.
According to the foundation, a single home can house five people and costs $89,000 per unit.
Eric Reed/AP Images for AIDS Healthcare Foundation
In Seattle, compact apartments tend to cater to young, single workers; retirees; students; and people looking to downsize, The Associated Press reported.
Kris King can stand in his kitchen, closet, and bedroom all at once.
His apartment is about the same size as a large parking spot, according to The Associated Press.
In 2013, King was paying $750 a month for the 120-square-foot micro apartment, the same source reported.
Elaine Thompson/AP Photo
Micro apartments in Seattle usually come with a private bathroom and built-in furniture to save space and help make them even more appealing to young people, according to Reuters.
The resident of this 200-square-foot apartment said this was an affordable way to live inside the city center for under $1,200, according to Reuters.
Nick Adams/Reuters
Greg Cantori built his 238-square-foot tiny home in Pasadena, Maryland, for him and his wife to live in once they retire, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Greg Cantori told the Chicago Tribune that he placed the tiny house on a trailer, so he can easily tow it and bring it on the road when the couple travels. The tiny house cost the couple $19,500, according to the same source.
Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
Students from the Savannah College of Art & Design in Georgia designed 135-square-foot micro houses to tackle urban population and affordability problems in the area, Next City reports.
The interior of this SCADpad "North America" was on display during a micro-housing event in Atlanta, in 2015 according to Next City.
The majority of the walls are windows, which help to make the apartment feel a lot larger than it actually is, the same source reported.
John Amis/AP Images for Savannah College of Art and Design
A ski resort in one of the US's most expensive ski towns built tiny homes for its seasonal workers.
In Aspen, Colorado, the ski resort Aspen Snowmass ran out of affordable housing for its seasonal workers, who are employed to run the town's ski slopes and restaurants, Insider previously reported.
So the company built a tiny-house village in 2016. Today, each home fits three people, and a room costs about $550 a month, which is less than the town's other options, the same source reported.
Monica Humphries/Insider
New York City is another notoriously expensive city, thanks to its high rent and shoebox-sized apartments for multiple people
New York City is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live and is home to some unusual housing solutions, according to Thrillist.
Edwin Remsburg/VW Pics/Getty Images
Many New Yorkers are willing to sacrifice space for solitude. For example, Alaina Randazzo spends $650 a month for a micro apartment without a bathroom, Insider reported.
Alaina Randazzo's apartment in Midtown Manhattan clocks in at just 80 square feet, Insider previously reported.
Alaina Randazzo
And in Brooklyn, New York, one couple turned their 460-square-foot studio apartment into a modular live-work loft, according to Apartment Therapy.
The apartment makes use of the tiny space, utilizing functional storage compartments and an innovative lofted bed, Apartment Therapy reports.
Getty Images
