Have you seen them? Those adorable little transformable apartments? You can move the walls around and create different rooms. Ingenious, right? Not so fast. Let’s be honest.
What’s a transformable apartment? It’s another idea in a line of ideas for tiny living. I’ll admit, when I first saw one of these transformable apartments, I was impressed. They are pretty cool. Take a look for yourself:
Pretty cool, huh? But do they make sense? Really? Think about it. These transformable apartments might create more complication than they do good.
Why Transformable Apartments Make No Sense
- Too small: What is too small? I don’t want to set a standard. For some, a 300 square-foot space might work great. But in general, I don’t think the average person wants to live in something that small. Most of these transformable apartments are tiny.
- Wasted space: When you consider how much space it takes to add the movable walls, transformable apartments are not saving space. They’re wasting space. A large studio apartment is just as functional and much more simple.
- Expensive: Did you see the gadgets and movable walls in these units? Do you think those kinds of extras are cheap? The cost per square foot could be more than double of a simple, traditional loft-style apartment.
- Extra work: As a minimalist, I not only focus on less stuff, I focus on less busy work. Moving walls around every time you want to create a different room is nothing but busy work. Chances are that the novelty of transformable apartments would wear off quickly, too.
- Single dwellings: So these places might work okay for a single person, but how would they work for a small family? If you swear of relationships, marriage, and children, maybe transformable apartments will work for you.
Stop Trying To Reinvent The Box
We already have millions of small apartments and small homes in America. A home is simply a place for shelter. Stop trying to get over fancy with space saving. Let’s use what we have.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against innovation. But why not put our energy toward creating more green options? Let’s focus on reusable materials, solar roofs, and other environmentally-friendly building models. Let’s focus on wiring apartments to work in tandem with our smart devices to make traditional keys and light switches obsolete.
And yes, there is room for creating more space-saving furnishings. But space-saving can happen without the extra costs of building it into homes. We don’t need transformable apartments. We need to transform our minds to live more simply.
