<i>We could end up with a house under $10,000 that could be placed anywhere in the world.</i><p>Average U.S. construction prices per square foot for apartment buildings start at $130 per square foot, depending on location and material/fixture quality. New York is the most expensive at $230 per square foot.<p>So at 36 square feet, this dumpster home would end up at what... $270 per square foot? That's way more expensive than an actual apartment building, and that's before appliances and shared spaces such as bathrooms/laundry rooms/kitchens, not to mention the shipment costs which have got to be significant.
We really should have a lower limit for housing. Meaning if you're "homeless" you get given something about the size of this to live in that will at least keep you alive until you can find something else.<p>Currently we have people building "homes" literally within the suspension beams of bridges, in shop doorways, and we have hundreds of people freezing to death out of the streets yearly. When we could build a basic "home" for under $150, it seems completely avoidable.<p>I think, counter-intuitively, the biggest roadblock to doing something like that might be regulations (e.g. building codes). They define what a "home" should and shouldn't be, but ultimately set the bar very high (and we wind up with the current situation).<p>Maybe there should be a new set of regulations for "emergency accommodation." Nobody should be literally homeless in 2014 in the Western world, particularly as it would cost less than an iPhone to house them for a year (assuming only a roof and basic electric space heater, nothing else).
New rule: If a place doesn't have a toilet, you can't say you're "living in it". This guy is living partially in a dumpster AND partially in a gym (where he uses the bathroom.)
No kitchen, toilet, running water or insulation? It's about as livable as a kid's tree house. Plus, it probably violates about half of the building code. This is simply a publicity stunt.
Pretty cool.<p>This guy was living in a dumpster before it was hip:<p><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/brooklyn-dumpster-home-sweet-home-article-1.1422854" rel="nofollow">http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/brooklyn-dumpst...</a><p>Also check out the film "Tiny" about people who build/live in tiny houses.
I am a fan of small houses, though perhaps this dumpster is a little too minimalist (for me) in its current form (the article states they are taking the time to work out what is truly beneficial in a small house, and it looks like this investigation is far from over).<p>The most desirable small homes I've seen so far are from dwelle, they seem to strike a good balance between compactness and practicality... <a href="http://www.dwelle.co.uk/" rel="nofollow">http://www.dwelle.co.uk/</a> If anyone else has some small home projects they were impressed by, please share, I'd like some further inspiration.
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I'm a big fan of living modestly and I'd love to see more progress towards modest homes, in terms of both new technologies and new cultural norms (try to find a well-constructed 750 sq. ft. home for sale in a safe neighborhood).<p>On the other hand, I didn't see anything in the article about how this scales to relationships, marriages, and children. Considering how commonplace (and even economical!) various forms of cohabitation are, I wonder if this isn't another spherical cow experiment. Or am I missing the point?
This is reminiscent of the teacher and philosopher Diogenes [1], who lived in a large tub in the Athens marketplace. Alexander the Great is said to have been so impressed by Diogenes' minimalism that he remarked "if I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes."<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope</a>
I'm a fan of all these small-living endeavors. I'd personally build a somewhat larger passive-solar-optimized structure out of more appropriate materials.<p>The gotcha is always land. Try to find an affordable plot near enough to community and services. It's going be way more than the cost of the building.
No mentions at all of food or meals, nor cold weather. Great way to live if you can afford to eat out 3 meals a day, and it's warm enough to just sleep outside anyway. It's really not living simply... it's just outsourcing the complexity to his wallet.