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Comment by flyGuyOnTheSly | Hacker News Reader

In North America, the tiny home movement is fledgling... more of a novelty than a way of life for most people it seems.

Tiny homes are illegal in almost every single municipality due to zoning restrictions.

Are the arm's-length flats regarded similarly in Tokyo? More of an experiment than anything else? You can live here for a few months, but if someone gets upset, you might have to move?

Do these tiny flats exist legally, and is their existence expanding I guess is my question?

The second lady's apartment in the video for example... the pile of electrical cords amongst all of her clothes looks like kind of a fire hazard that some landlords would give you flak over in North America if they saw that.

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"In North America, the tiny home movement is fledgling"

The US is lucky to have so much open space which lets people build their own tiny homes. The tiny homes don't feel cramped because they're surrounded by nature, with beautiful long uninterrupted views out of the windows. No noisy neighbours or traffic nearby either.

But take away the countryside location of these homes and could the tiny house work in an urban environment? I doubt it. The future for housing for most people on the planet (including the US) is in cities and urban environments. Can you live in a tiny home where you don't have long, uninterrupted views out of your windows? Or where you only have windows along one side of your dwelling (e.g. single-aspect apartments). Do you feel you have enough privacy when your apartment or house is joined with your neighbour's home?

Millions of people already live in homes like this and have to contend with these issues. Can we have small or modest-sized homes that give us light, space, privacy, quiet and comfort in a noisy urban setting? It's one of the most pressing and important issues in housing design - and one that architects and home builders have failed to address.

I lived in a space that size in an urban area for years. Saved money, had a whole city to go out in. They call such arrangements a "crash pad". We had a half decent kitchen, but enjoyed all the local restaurants, and the local hackerspace for projects that took space, a store across the street for all the things you didn't have the house. I'd much prefer living in a tiny urban apartment to a rural space where you can't walk anywhere, have to store everything you need at home, etc.

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