I came across this great story on an architect in Hong Kong who has taken less than 400 s.f. of apartment space and transformed it into 24 different rooms. Huh? That's what I thought! This innovative designer has taken Asia's minimalist philosophy of compact multi-family living and turned it into a grand, green-living extravaganza! I hope that the Hong Kong Institute of Housing that is chirping about the 120,000 new flats it is to create and the 3,000 new property management professionals it is to train over the next three years thinks of Gary Chang when they get started! It may be a bit overkill to some, but it's the run-way model for streamlined living.
The Bullitt Center in Seattle, due to open in November, is boasting a title of the biggest living, green office building on the planet (6 stories tall, creating all the water and electricity it consumes and built to last 250 years.) It has taken incredible strides toward sustainability yet at $30 million dollars to construct - and an enormous group of top-shelf thinkers, designers, investors - I have to think Mr. Chang's impact is equally important.
It was less than a decade ago when my husband and I designed and built our monstrosity of a home - 4,000 square feet with a 1,000 s.f. guest house - FOR TWO PEOPLE. We took care to make it as "green" as we could, which cracks me up and seems obscene to me now when I consider the footprint we were leaving, regardless of our efforts in solar, repurposed materials, etc. When I consider a true footprint, it is small. No matter if it is a 6-foot-tall man or a new-born child. If we truly care about our limited resources, we should attempt to use less. It's that simple. At least in the tiny home that Gary Chang has created, his creatures comforts come in small sizes.
I look forward to the day when both of these models are mainstream and the rental and for-sale market is flooded with green innovation that is affordable and effective. I remind myself that although we have a long way to go, I can remember the first main-frame I ever saw when I was in Jr. High and it took up rooms upon rooms. Today that same storage is housed in a fraction of the space at a fraction of the cost. Cloud-based software solutions have saved countless dollars and landfills and trees and rivers. And it is accessible to the masses. Yes, Virginia, there is hope!
_______________________________________________________________________________
Janell is a member of Rentec Direct, a web-based property management software program designed to help streamline tenant criminal and credit checks and the day-to-day operations of landlords and property managers. You'll find many other useful articles like this on the Rentec Direct Blog.
Comments(3)