I'd get curtains, and to h#11 with the architect's sensibility. That place would definitely be getting curtains.

not2techy

Glad none of you guys like it. More for me!

I happen to be in love. The first floor should be some kinda bike/motorcycle/vespa parking mixed with a bathroom though. Drive in, pee, go upstairs to the fun.

Eric Merrill

Oh, c'mon, Munch, be a sport with SuperCollider. It's only a whine tab.

bosskev

@SuperCollider: Dude - It took you 90 seconds to click a link, hit CTRL F, type the word 'popcorn' and read 50 words? That 90 seconds you wasted should be the least of your concerns, man

Munch

hmmm... I think one of the reasons for having alleys is that the space helps slow the spread of fire from one building to the next.

whiteoak

@Munch: That's about 90 seconds you owe me, Munch. I'm gonna go ahead and start a tab.

SuperCollider

uhh. there's an unenclosed shower in the bedroom, right next to the TOILET

k4ffy

@allstarecho: "...I'd use the street level room as a garage for the car."

Motorcycle, maybe. At 7'10" wide, even if you could get your car to squeeze in without scraping your mirrors, you probably wouldn't be able to open the car door for entry/exit. Unless your car's a convertible, in which case you could just scramble across the hood and flop over the dashboard...in full, laughable view of everybody.

bosskev

Alleyways usually have a function, that's why they're there. Now how're the garbage trucks going to pick up that garbage?

jimbosmithy

@The_Duck: The glass doors swing open. Look at the pics of it on the site it came from.

Since I don't need a workspace, and one floor is already a living room, I'd use the street level room as a garage for the car.

allstarecho

@lillian27: Crap. Maybe that's why they rebuilt it, lol.

Munch

Or,if you're more the traditional type:
[www.thelittlehouse.ca]

FiveLiters

@designguybrown: Kind of like those pod hotels the Japanese use... all the comforts of home, in a 6 X 3 box.

tamoko

It's an interesting idea. I can see this in third world cities in the coming decades, hell even here in La, New york or Miami. Gibsonesque shanty towns filling up all the cracks and available spaces; stacking to fill the areas that others have abandoned.

Micro living is a cool concept, but i agree with most of the other commentors - It takes some getting used to, and definetley isn't for everyone.

tamoko

Wow, and I thought those Japanese pod hotels were bad.

infmom

I suppose that it could always be the 'downtown place' - y'know the one that supplements the country home with stables. You stay here three weeknights every week and then go to the other place when claustrophobia sinks in - saves on the 90-minute commute everyday i guess.... you could probably clean the entire place from top bottom in a few hours... nice to be walking distance to good currys, thai, and nightlife..
((sorry - i am reaching -- it does kinda make me want to give up my will to live))

designguybrown

Make the lowest level a tunnel for cars & trucks and this could work (if building codes aren't violated with this and/or adjacent buildings).

brutek

what a horrible place to live

flyboy

@lillian27:
Eh! Darn link. How about this:

[en.wikipedia.org]

lillian27

@Munch:

I like the train station in Wheaton, kinda Richardsonian Romanesque in style. It says it was rebuilt and I wonder what the original looked like.

lillian27

:[

kahri

How did they get the furniture up to those higher levels? I'm guessing the couch and bed were not carried up that spiral staircase. Was the furniture placed in during construction? If so, what happens if you want to update your furniture? (New slip cover for the couch perhaps?) And what happens if just a year or so down the road one of your neighboring buildings (aka one of your walls) should be slated for demolition?

Part of me likes this idea, but I just don't think it has been very well thought out.

The_Duck

To everyone who says that this micro living looks neat... WHATEVER.

It gets old when you do it day after day after day after day after day...

And you realize how much you pay for a place that shrinks exponentially if you bring in anything that wasn't there before hand.

DustyButt

Looks awesome, but kinda dangerous. Imagine getting out of the tub, and slipping on soap. That would be a hard fall

Isoko

SO sorry for that one! Apologies to all.

bosskev

@kahri: "ever been awakened by the sudden urge to pee?"
Well, sure. Isn't that what mattress pads are for?

bosskev

@bosskev: ever been awakened by the sudden urge to pee? Now just some good aiming and you're back to sleep.

kahri

Throw in some more beds and hot chicks...
looks like someone ripped the face off a Amsterdam whorehouse.

ANoel

I have friends in NY who live in an apartment about the square footage of my closets. I am not streamlined enough to give up that kind of space. All what youre used to I guess.

Curves

@bosskev: Making it by far the best college dorm style.

Darrone

I was kind of diggin' it. Fun. Funky. Inventive. That is, until I went to the link and saw just where they had placed the toilet...shoved up next to the bed, inches away from your pillow. Umm, no.
[www.archinect.com]
For whatever reason the photo won't embed, so hit the link above.

bosskev

Can anyone say "Fifth Element"? It's just like the block where Cobin Dallas lived. Wow, Luc Beson, you're a futurist!

qbrad

so living in a box in an alley is new? I keeed, I keeed.

kahri

Or... you could.... move out of the city, perhaps?

Why anyone would want to cram themselves in with OTHER people is beyond me. There's still plenty of space out there.

bobman1235

You know, I was just thinking to myself the other day "what we really need in big cities is less open space and more high-priced, minuscule, reptile-house styled apartments", and TA-DA!

drewdrawsPooh

I'd live like this. I like the idea of micro living. I'd want a fireman's pole and I'd move the stairs to the back.

Where's the fire escape?

DeadWriter

This is pretty hot.

I can definitely see this being a way of rethinking luxury living without having a big impact on an environment. It reminds me of the railroad style apartments in Brooklyn.

loogee

I'd rather have a palacial estate in SixthToe Arkansas than live in that over-priced, over-glorified shoebox.

Of course... I live in DC, so I just made a completely hypocritical comment. But, I'm getting out if the rat-race one day! I'm selling my shoebox/condo and LEAVING... I swear!

DustyButt

its like somekinda Bruce Lee 8 levels of death home game

Zan

I've seen better uses for an alley...

[en.wikipedia.org]

Find the word 'Popcorn' and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Munch

I'd leterally buy that for a dollar, any more and it is not worth it.

Hand_O_Death

It's cool and depressing at the same time. It's like living in stacked U-Haul trailers.

Kaiser-Machead

Add an epiphany toilet next to that bathtub, and I'm sold.

It reminds me of the hookers in Amsterdam. Maybe you go up a level every time you request something weird. Definitely don't want to go to that top level.

Darrone