{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-c03aa079.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-517835be.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Micro-apartments in giant concrete drainage pipes' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54d751d8eafeecae20ae3a' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54d751d8eafeecae20ae3a' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nMicro-apartments in giant concrete drainage pipes\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eLEAD-IN              Hong Kong’s notoriously expensive housing makes owning an affordable home a pipe dream for many residents.               A local architect is proposing a novel idea to help alleviate that problem: building stylish...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eLEAD-IN\u003cbr/\u003e              Hong Kong’s notoriously expensive housing makes owning an affordable home a pipe dream for many residents. \u003cbr/\u003e              A local architect is proposing a novel idea to help alleviate that problem: building stylish micro-apartments inside giant concrete drainage pipes. \u003cbr/\u003e              STORYLINE \u003cbr/\u003e              It's a home built inside a concrete water pipe.\u003cbr/\u003e              The \"OPod\" comes equipped with a living room and bathroom inside the 100 square feet, 2.5m wide circular walled apartment which can fit into gaps between buildings or under a flyover and is stackable to become a multi-story structure. \u003cbr/\u003e              In Hong Kong where ever-rising home prices has topped the list of world's most expensive for seven years, architect James Law is offering affordable homes targeted at young people who are fresh in the job market and hope to move out of their parents' home.\u003cbr/\u003e              James Law’s OPod Tube Housing is still just at the conceptual stage, but it’s attracted attention as an innovative though untested way to deal with housing shortages.\u003cbr/\u003e              The idea came to Law when he spotted some leftover storm sewer drain pipes at a construction site.\u003cbr/\u003e              \"One day, I happened to see some of these large concrete water tubes left, and I thought, wow, why are they being wasted, whilst at the same time, here in Hong Kong, we are facing a lot of the affordable housing issues that are making young people having difficulty to afford their own housing. So I thought why not buy these concrete tubes at a very low cost and convert them into these really cute micro-living architecture, so that people can afford their own funky homes,\" he explains. \u003cbr/\u003e              Law has only built a prototype to test public interest but has already received inquiries from around the world. \u003cbr/\u003e              \"Well I don't think that the OPod can solve Hong Kong expensive living conditions and this is a very complicated situation that we're in here in Hong Kong. Nevertheless I think the OPod represents a new category of housing which I think alleviates some of the problems for a certain sector of our population, i.e. our young people. I think one of the ways in which we can slightly alleviate the pressures on affordability is to identify certain groups of our community that needs help and introduce a kind of transient class of living that is able to give them low rent, decent housing without necessarily affecting the whole real estate market,\" says Law. \u003cbr/\u003e              There’s a lot crammed into the OPod. It consists of two sections of 2.5-metre (about 8 foot) diameter pipes fitted with glass doors on both ends.\u003cbr/\u003e              A living area inside includes a bench that converts into a bed, opposite shelves on the facing, curving wall. Another shelf fits a bar fridge and a microwave next to a galley sink beneath an air conditioner. \u003cbr/\u003e              A tiled bathroom at the end includes a combined shower and toilet. \u003cbr/\u003e              The OPod cost $15,000 to build. Law says he envisions renting them out for less than $400 a month to recent graduates on low incomes trying to get a foot on the housing ladder. That’s a fraction of the market rate. \u003cbr/\u003e              \"So the OPod tube house is really designed to be rented to young people, so what we intend to do is to have a rental programme that is significantly cheaper than the existing rate in Hong Kong. We are really aiming to rent this out at almost one-fifth of the cost of what they cost to live in in Hong Kong for the equivalent sized apartment. So for example, in Hong Kong now, in the prime areas, a 100 square feet can cost you anything up to 15,000 Hong Kong dollars for rent. Here with the OPod tube house, what we want to do it to rent it out for 3,000 Hong Kong dollars a month to young people who are means tested, and know that they qualify for the programme,\" says Law.\u003cbr/\u003e              In the OPod prototype, the home can fit minimal furniture like a mini fridge, a microwave oven, a foldable bed, shelves for TV and books and open closet.\u003cbr/\u003e              It’s less a long-term solution to Hong Kong’s housing crisis than a novel way to make use of leftover spaces where conventional housing doesn’t fit. \u003cbr/\u003e              The pipe homes could be stacked into gaps between buildings, under highway overpasses or on the roofs of existing buildings.\u003cbr/\u003e            \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e              Hong Kong, 13 March 2018\u003cbr/\u003e              1. Wide of \"OPod\" tube home on display in Hong Kong's industrial area of Kwun Tong\u003cbr/\u003e              2. Mid of tube home\u003cbr/\u003e              3. Wide of tube home on display under a flyover in Hong Kong's industrial area of Kwun Tong\u003cbr/\u003e              4. Wide of James Law, architect who created OPod tube housing enters and sits down on bench\u003cbr/\u003e              5. Pan to Law reading in tube home\u003cbr/\u003e              6. Wide of Law turning bench into a bed\u003cbr/\u003e              7. Wide of Law making the bed\u003cbr/\u003e              8. SOUNDBITE (English) James Law, architect who created OPod tube housing,\u003cbr/\u003e              \"One day, I happened to see some of these large concrete water tubes left, and I thought, wow, why are they being wasted, whilst at the same time, here in Hong Kong, we are facing a lot of the affordable housing issues that are making young people having difficulty to afford their own housing. So I thought why not buy these concrete tubes at a very low cost and convert them into these really cute micro-living architecture, so that people can afford their own funky homes.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              9. Cutaway James Law \u003cbr/\u003e              10. SOUNDBITE (English) James Law, architect who created OPod tube housing,\u003cbr/\u003e              \"Well I don't think that the OPod can solve Hong Kong expensive living conditions and this is a very complicated situation that we're in here in Hong Kong. Nevertheless I think the OPod represents a new category of housing which I think alleviates some of the problems for a certain sector of our population, i.e. our young people. I think one of the ways in which we can slightly alleviate the pressures on affordability is to identify certain groups of our community that needs help and introduce a kind of transient class of living that is able to give them low rent, decent housing without necessarily affecting the whole real estate market.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              11. Mid of James Law in interview \u003cbr/\u003e              12. Close of James Law's hands\u003cbr/\u003e              13. SOUNDBITE (English) James Law, architect who created OPod tube housing,\u003cbr/\u003e              \"This kind of house in really portable, we actually make it in a construction site, and we lift it onto a truck, we can deliver it anywhere. At this kind of low price, it is about a third of the cost of developing a typical building in the same size here in Hong Kong. So it represents a new, affordable architecture.\" \u003cbr/\u003e              14. Pan of Law in interview\u003cbr/\u003e              15. SOUNDBITE (English) James Law, architect who created OPod tube housing,\u003cbr/\u003e              \"So the OPod tube house is really designed to be rented to young people, so what we intend to do is to have a rental programme that is significantly cheaper than the existing rate in Hong Kong. We are really aiming to rent this out at almost one-fifth of the cost of what they cost to live in in Hong Kong for the equivalent sized apartment. So for example, in Hong Kong now, in the prime areas, a 100 square feet can cost you anything up to 15,000 Hong Kong dollars for rent. Here with the OPod tube house, what we want to do it to rent it out for 3,000 Hong Kong dollars a month to young people who are means tested, and know that they qualify for the programme.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              16. Mid of Law reading inside tube home\u003cbr/\u003e              17. Mid of bathroom in tube home\u003cbr/\u003e              18. 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