Poland’s micro-apartments: A life of luxury in 18 square meters? | Focus on Europe
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- Опубликовано: 6 июл 2024
- Tiny apartments are becoming trendy in Warsaw. City planners are celebrating, but the critics say they violate Polish building regulations.
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#Poland #MicroApartment #Warsaw
This is not minimalist. This is a housing crisis because prices are skyrocketing and people can not afford appartments anymore.
In downtown Vancouver, Canada this unit is $2000 to rent per month
Exactly!!!
completely agree. I'm considering moving to Warsaw, but his apartment is just terrifying to me and frankly cluttered.
Yes, thats because renting in unregulated in Poland, there is almost non-existant propety tax which opens the way to so called "flippers" (house scalpers).
What a scam, it's not a trend it's a scam
It's a trendy scam! 😂
It’s only a “scam” if they’re paying the same price as a much bigger unit. I don’t recall a rental price being mentioned.
@@xtrey19x Socialists rather demand something that costs a fixed amount be priced below that amount "somehow" because "greed" is responsible not the cost of labor. They also demand anything that isn't perfect be perfect as they should not sacrifice to save money.
It's funny how many people say we should be sustainable, save resources, etc. but then violently react when you ask them personally to do so. Less people are living together per home while per home labor plus standards plus environmental plus tax are all going up so obviously the amount of home per person will decrease.
I'd much rather have a cheap option available that way anyone that is poor has a place to live. And of course then you know the actual homeless belong in mental hospitals.
If you've ever had to move an apartment or house full of items you didn't even realize you had, or stuff you should've gotten rid of, you'll realize that there's HUGE value in being forced to just have less "stuff" by living in a small unit.
@@BlownMacTruck There is no value in being forced to live in a cage.
This is Orwellian.
The most Orwellian - he is happy to exist in this hole
@@ArtU4All He is not! He has a big house with a huge garden in a lake district. The man is a popular botanist and his real house was presented in a magazine. He uses this tiny place only when he visits Warsaw. The reporters didn't show us the whole picture.
That architect is a sociopath who doesnt understand community at all
I felt so sad for us. They enslaved us succesfully
There's quite a lot of people like that in Poland. And worst part of that that they are encouraging dog as a substitute for a child. It's insane. That's why liberals are so hated in Poland.
He spoke about survival ("small apartment is enough to survive" - something like that), and kind of nomadic life, where you don't settle.
I wonder what is the purpose of this DW material?
no he understands it very good. Society is ageing. 50% of marriages end up with divorce. 10 to 15 years ago when you could not rent a flat you had to rent a room in flat with 2 or 3 other people inside with no intimacy. No one talked about it. In the end you probably had less space and privacy than in microapartment.
@@MrKostkapotocki And _you_ are so far removed from any sense of community, you cant even conceive why i say that.
Just post some non-sequitur about economics you dont even remotely understand, trying to justify predators - because other predators.
I am Polish and this is typical Warsaw sociopathy. No one in their right mind would want to live in such a cramped hellhole. Minimalism is about having a large space but with not many things to clutter it up. Not about having housing straight from the worst designs possible: Hong Kong.
If you don't know about The Venus Project, Watch their 1st Documentary Future By Design...Paradise Or Oblivion, The Choice Is Ours.
You should look at the things through a more political lense, as this is not about the preferences of Warsaw sociopaths, it's simply the material conditions created by capitalism and consumerism.
@@duncan.o-vic these conditions must be reversed and fought against. This is harming our society and is equivalent to crime.
@@duncan.o-vic "Politics Is An Obsolete Way Of Doing Things. Although it was good a hundred years ago, it has no place in today's high tech society" ~ Jacque Fresco, The Venus Project
@@VulcanData84 That is a meaningless piece of BS if you'd really think about it.
Politics is and will always be the way of donig things, because it is what politics means. You are subjected to, and do politics whether you want/know it or not. High tech society (or rather, the illusion of high tech) is just a product and instrument of politics.
edit: Please, start thinking critically instead of just absorbing random quotations.
Everybody else depends on your decisions.
I am, of course, taking what you write out of context because I am not familiar, nor am I interested in documentaries.
Who else cringed when he said: "it's the way of the future"...🥴
Yup... if that's what the future has in store for most of us, then it's a future I want no part of.
maybe he was overly impressed as a kid after watching the Fifth Element and Bruce Willis's character sleeping in a mix of a wardrobe and a bed😄
The latest motto is "You will own nothing and you will be happy"
Why not lower the ceilings? Why not have people sharing the bunk beds in 8-hour shifts?
You cannot call this apartment, it's a cage.
But it is a glamorous cage - everything is new and shiny...
hahahah 😂
Better than a lot of space but living in the middle of nowhere like you.
Maybe, but perhaps it is because some people would like to have a cage as their home.
@@melisadrucker719 It is not about living nowhere or in a big city.
It is about rents being way to high for sush a small place and people are unable to afford anything bigger.
People are often paying 1000€+ in rent for something that should not cost more than 250€. Some media is glorifying it while the companies owning this buildings laughing their a... off.
At the same time buildings in big cities are often empty because of marked speculation or people having their fourth or fifth home there.
This is just sad.
Why?
Explain
Investor-owned "offices" being rented to people to live in is sad.
this is not Sad this is a crime a scam a fraud no one should treat it any another way
🎯💯🔥😔
This sucks, it’s living in a goldfish bowl.
My exact thoughts.
You would have more space in a goldfish bowl.
Next time use a wider camera lens so that we can actually see his apartment
A Floorplan would be great.
It would, also, be very telling.
Exactly, a wide-angle would be appropriate 😂
They already used the widest angle that isn't a fisheye, probably 10mm.
Next time, he can get out of that robe and put on some clothes.
Can we see how mr Architect lives? Betting on huge huge apartment :D
Doubt he even lives in an apartment, but an inherited mansion 😂
THIS!!!
Polish government needs to do something about those developers. These are wage cages, not apartments. There is plenty of space in Warsaw, no need to make apartments as small as possible. Are they trying to become another Hong Kong, where apartments are shared by multiple people at once?
The Khruschovka of the 21st century
@@ArtU4All It's ironic that people fought communism for this.
Wage cages for wage slaves in a debt economy …
Polish government funds the developers indirectly on a full-scale by pouring milliards of euros of subisidies into mortgages and Polish ignorant people just observe
Google: Bezpieczny Kredyt 2%, Mieszkanie NaStart 0%
This is not a new architectural trend, my friends, this is called inflation and poverty.... No one in their right mind would choose to live in 18 sq.m instead of 40-50 sq.m.
Well, minimalism does not mean the apartment has to be tiny😅
Is'nt it the UN standard for 1 person around 220sqf? Btw, now banks in HK refuse loans to tiny apartments and the price drops by 30%. Poland is such a geographically vast nation and the architect should not use a tightly packed city of 7 million people as an inspiration or excuse as he publicized his idea.
That would be 2 sq meters bigger. It’s not far off from that already. There are most likely better paying jobs in the city itself and lots of people prefer city living. If others are content why does it matter? The market will dictate what people want and more importantly there are plenty of singles who don’t want a large space as it requires more work to maintain.
@Mean_Bean279 you are right. what the UN standard meant is the minimum size for a person. The living space has to be bigger for one lives a bit comfortable.
I was thinking to myself "this has got to be made illegal", and immediately after at 02:30 they said "it is illegal".
As it should be. This distorts the prices of regular size houses and apartments. It is unhealthy and unsanitary to live in such a small space. I live in a 35sq meters apartment and I find it way too small.
It actually lowers the prices of regular apartments. If more people are willing to live here it forces landlords of bigger units to either lower prices or have vacant units that lose money.
@@stevezelaznik5872 People don't want to live there. They live there because they have no choice.
@@first_of_hername160 It is answer on the situation that usually 3 or 4 room flats are rented to people that do not know each other. If you make this tiny flats illegal you force people to live in bigger flats and have in the end smaller space. This flats should be made legal and promoted. Society is changing and more and more people live alone ( elderlies or single) and they need this kind of accomodation. Additionally business is growing and huge capitals need places like this. I used to travel a lot and we were living in hotels then in the town when i had a project one company build compound like this. Instead of hotel you get tiny flat. It was a little bit bigger than hotel room but with kitchen. No daily cleaning that i do not need. It was simply more comfortable.
Then what? Throw him on the street? Stop judging people
what a nightmare….and they trying to assure us, that is a lifestyle choice….
For a childless person & someone who spends a lot of time outside it can be a lifestyle choice.
@@xtrey19x Why would a childfree person choose to live in a cage?
This is a crime against humanity.
😂😂😂
Nice try selling us something we dont want.
😂
as a tourist I wanna stay there to have a new experience. but to live - no.
Nope, I don't want to just survive and sleep. I want a place to live.
And how can someone in their right mind think that Hong Kong can be the role model for apartments.
Exactly.
its not architecture is pathology.
Meanwhile all the elites are living lavishly 🙄😖💯
Exactly. People who own that building live in spacious houses.
And no, tiny garconnieres are NOT becoming trendy, they are being forcefully imposed on people.
True.
Nobody has to buy or rent one
@@margin606 When there is not enough of real and affordable apartments, people are forced to rent something small like this.
@@margin606 except when you're young and at the beginning of your career (lower income)....
@@margin606 Congratulation on not understanding human needs i guess. Have you ever considered developing empathy?
i bet that architect doesn't live in a micro apartment lol
The Polish government needs to outlaw residential living in commercial spaces.
I live in a major US city. This micro-apartment nonsense needs to be banned and the ban strictly enforced. First, it's inhumane, both for people and their pets. Second, it drives up rental prices. Sure, the guy in the video regards it as "luxurious", but most times, it's just a way for landlords to charge more for even less square footage.
The guy in the video doesn't live there! He only uses the apartment when he visits Warsaw. The man has a real house in a lake district.
And what if we dont want to just survive and sleep? This is ridiculous and multiple studies have shown this is not good for mental health. And allowing such housing to even be built is just another way for the poor people to be cramped into small apartments while the rich enjoy a private house all to themselves within the city limits
Dystopia
Developers tried this in HK. It worked for a year, and then the demand for this type of micro-apartments evaporated.
His apartment is not something to brag about. It is small and the decor is horrible.
I guess he was the only one who allowed the crew to film it!
Doctor Zagajewski who appears in the video has a big house with a huge garden in the country. He only uses the small apartment when he works in Warsaw. It's not fair to show him in this material because he is not forced to live there and it is not his only place. I can imagine sleeping there when you work all day might be fine if you have a comfortable house elsewhere.
How is this possible, this is not Hong Kong or Singapore where is lack of building space....This is freaking Poland Warsaw, then build at the outskirt of the City center.
It's all about greed.
Omg, I bet you have more space in prison😢😢😢
You will own little and be happy.
And eat ze bugs?
Its somewhere between the Playboy Mansion meets Bladerunner 2049
I'm from the south (Silesia) and Warsaw is like a different planet inhabited by aliens to me. I live in 36 square meters and if feels too small for me and my dog.
I feel you.
architech is getting paid by big corpo for sure
This is nothing compared to what we have in Hong Kong.
Facts
What do you have in Hong Kong? Worse? Better?
You really need to slow down on baby making over there
My kitchen is bigger than that.
Facts lol
Artur Zagajewski is a botanist who lives in a big house in a beautiful lake district north of Warsaw. He needs this tiny space as a sleep over when in the city. Like many other residents.
I live in a one bedroom apartment. After a few years I stopped using the bedroom and now I use it like a studio apartment. I could live in one of these places, but a lot of people have too much stuff and need room to invite guests over. It's not for everyone.
People accumulate junk they don't use. I like these small places, less to upkeep. I can only be in one spot at one time.
Live? 🤔
I lived in a one bedroom apartment for seven years and I slept in the bedroom every night for those seven years.
@@user-wt5bf4rw7e no upkeep? So you would never tidy or clean it?
@@Steve30x I am sure your blowup doll was pleased to have your company and your sister was relieved she didn't have to sleep with you.
It's not a hype if you can't afford the alternatives.
What?! There's no way I'd live in that cubby hole. It would be too claustrophobic. I hope you're not promoting this idiocy to start a trend. People would end up expiring of nervous breakdowns. It's like living in a cage!
I will listen to mr architect as soon as he shows me his own 18m2 apartment which he and his family calls home...Or are we also advocating for everyone living alone in the future? Imagine another total lock down while living in a box so small that you can't even change your mind! 🤔
good luck raising kids in that doghouse
It's not for people with kids DUH
@@ICONICPARIS sad
@@ICONICPARISthey don't build spaces for families with kids, though.
The elites in power and control over everything on this earth do not want humanity to breed anymore 🙄😖💯
@@kaltmorgenI doubt the interviewed man wants children at his age. Clearly these are not for families.
Personally, 18m2 is too tiny, but there's certainly a need for small, affordable housing in cities. A roof over one's head is very important.
They should be equally inexpensive
@@chr7881why? Because you want a minimum of 30sq meters? If people are happy and able to afford them who cares? My wife and I live in a house that’s 185sq meters, for just two people. Why don’t we make that the standard instead? Sure less people could afford that big of a place, but it would make ME feel better about the size of their home.
If there's not enough space for you, have you considered moving elsewhere?
This is wrong on so many levels, that is inhumane and you can’t try to put a positive spin on breaking law to stuff people into a closet and pretending it’s a home. Also, you’re on camera for the public to view a ‘soft news’ segment, put some clothes on for gods sake.
If it cost less than more traditional size housing then that’s a positive spin.
@@xtrey19x No, it's not. It's inhuman.
This video itself is a scam. The man in the video has a big house in the country. He only stays at his tiny apartment when he comes to Warsaw. He is a popular botanist and his real house was showed in a magazine. The reporters here lie to their audience.
@@first_of_hername160 wouldn't be the 1st time. some time ago they praised here zuckerberg's metaverse in more than 1 video. and ofc it turned out to be giant flop.
I thought I saw it all in New York. Apparently, there is competition.
Rent a match-box? No thanks. I’m sure they can smell their fellow neighbours, let alone hear them 👎👎👎
Seems like a disaster waiting to happen. This is crazy!
I looked at one of these back around 2011 in Boston. I think that they were more designed for people working a ton of hours at Mass General and who wouldn't be spending a lot of time at home. It was about 28 square meters and it was a bit of a shock to see it. If you eat out a lot, workout at a nearby gym, and spend more time outside the home in public places and work, then I could see it working.
prepare for a future in which you'll either own a micro tiny 10sqm apartment or you'll rent a bigger super large one (30sqm) together with your 5 school friends. Meanwhile the 1% own 200 houses and 500 apartments each minimum 100 sqm.
Can I ask you to show how people nowadays living in Berlin ? Plenty of them in hostels with 12 beds in dormitories or even , which is not so rare, on the streets. Having as a toilet nearest corner or even making a sheet at the local communal parks.
A mnie przesyłają filmy z USA, śpią pod mostem i na ulicach, a to jest klatka ,ale wlasna.
@@alicjagorecka3446 Yeah, right. In the US you have to be a jobless junkie to live in the streets. In Warsaw people work hard to live in a cage.
@@alicjagorecka3446 Don't lie. Please don't lie. Go to Berlin and the US and see for yourself. Homeless people are usually addicts and jobless ones. In Warsaw people work hard to pay for a cage.
minimalism because you get 18 sqm but maximalism because you live with 3000 people in one building. Good luck sharing the elevator and dealing with noises and traffic within the buiding.
A recluse such as I am, wants absolutely nothing to do with people in crowded, tiny space apartment blocks. Oh well, each to his/her own.
this reminded me that seoul looks like a soviet eastern europe city, cuz in seoul most of the city is just copy paste bland apartments or condos
@@emikomina South Korea is 1st world country compared to many eastern Europeans countries
And Poland is neither an Eastern European country nor was it a soviet republic, just saying.
Dystopian.
So this building has to pay DW for the primotion😂 it is not a flat under Polish law. The smallest flat cannot be less then 25 sq.m. So they can’t sell them as the apartment 😂
with banks and developers ruling the countries and companies opposing the remote work - this is our most probable future. Everyone was laughing at USSR's small 'hrushchovka" apartments in the past, but they were actually much bigger than 18 sq.m. =D
Exactly. They were much, much bigger! And there were trees and flowers planted around them to make the neighborhood look like a garden. It wasn't luxury but it was a human friendly environment. Way better for living.
Which is better? Living in 18 sq meter home alone, or sharing with 10 strangers in a 40+ sq meter dorm style house? 🤔
This is just a sale pitch by real estate developers. Minimalism doesnt mean less space.
This person is going to invite friends for a party who are likely to be stacked one above the other.
I was living in 45 sqrt m with my mother for some time in my 20-21, but then covid happened and we decided to sell it and buy a 80-90 sqrt m house with huge land near the city. I work remotely and it was the best choice i have ever made. I realised that I had not known life before that. You become a part of nature. It is not minimalism, it is a way to leave more area for the richest.
Might be OK for folks who work in the city a couple days per week and have a house in the countryside for the family. Mistress meetup place too lol.
Warsaw looks depressing
It's not depressing but the cost of rent/properties is surely of the cons of living there.
The question for the mad architect greedy for money - why not 9 square meters? - that would double the availability of affordable housing in the centre of Warsaw, the next year you can be in Munich and the next year maybe Hong-Kong or Dubai... You could for example, use the toilet as the flat`s centre space for toileting/watching Euro Cup/cooking/benchpressing/laptop-working environement/yoga space/showering if carefully planned. Greedy and mad architect.
This is no joke. A few years ago an apartment was actually advertised in Berlin-Kreuzberg that was 9 sqm in total. I think it must have been a former kitchen turned into a flat. There wasn't even a built-in loft, which would have made sense. They were trying to sell or rent it. It caused a big ruckus when people heard about it.
Wrocław made a full building with 14sqm micro apartments right in the center, no issues there. My guess is it's not entirely illegal, there are workarounds.
There are those already
Theyre not build anew, those are actually rooms of a bigger apartment that the owner cut into smaller ones.
That's because rent for a room is 500-1500zl a month, but if you call it a 1-person apartment then its 1800-3000. They often dont even have a wardrobe, a bathroom or a fridge..
what a scam
18 sq meters or 193 sq ft?!!!? My goodness!! 😱
That architect is either nuts or paid off by a developer if he thinks that is sufficient.
Also “investors” buying them and then renting them out as basically apartments should be illegal
He certainly made it his own nook with lots of personality! I’m glad he enjoys it
It's not a hype in Warsaw. That is a necessity for many people because of very high prices.
For those who spend most of their time at home it can seem suffocating.
I bet that Olszewski is living in one of that kind appartment 😂😂
No thanks I hate small places.
That's not minimalism this is shrinkflation.
People work 50 hrs a week to pay massive mortgage interest for something they are making very little not sleeping not working use of.
He looks like a vampire
Investors are the evil here, they want to maximise their profits while not providing the people with sufficient housing. Renting by the thousands, how are people supposed to have their own kids? This is a disaster, and should be punished severily.
Not everone want/can have kids. Apartaments like this are also often used as 2nd houses. For weekends in the city or for work when your company require to work not remotly 2 days a week.
@@insolencePL Just because someone doesn't want kids doesn't mean that they want to live in a cage.
When you consider how much you NEED to SURVIVE....
Do you want to LIVE or SURVIVE?
That architect speaks about people who travel to major financial hubs around the world, regularly... but also can only afford a micro-apartment. From which dimension did he come from?
⚠️ How about we change our entire global system, The Venus Project
If you don't have children, then you don't need a lot of space.
But we need to take care of families to save the next generation.
Speak for yourself. Childfree people like to have space too.
This would only work if there were decent communal spaces both in the building and in the city.
Better then a tree and a bunch of snakes eating your feet. lol Can`t say its for me though, i`ll stay in my huge place living alone with many animal friends. * Ace Ventura music kicks in
I once lived in an apartment just like that (18m2). It was very depressing, like being a caged animal.
The man showing his apartment has a big house in the countryside. He's using this tiny flat when he's staying in Warsaw
There is no breathing space.
I bet that architect lives somewhere bigger
The stupidly smiling "architect" has TWO TV sets on the same wall??? Not to mention his passion for shiny marble floors, gold, crystals and tons of statues....
huh? those are two different people? 1)Artur with the apartment 2)the architect guy
maybe watch it one more time, larissa
@@iamvigant right, I did not listen with sound, was watching smth else on my phone. Anyway, that guy's apartment is too kitsch for me...
@@larissagildarasina7580 None of them lives in such tiny apartments. The guy with shiny marble floors has a big house in the country. He only sleeps in the tiny apartment when he visits Warsaw. He is a botanist and well known in Poland. His real house was presented in a magazine. I guess the reporters didn't expect someone might actually reveal the truth. Their target was the audience outside of Poland who doesn't know the man.
It's terrifying. I'm considering moving to Warsaw, but frankly his apartment looks tiny and cluttered to me. Doesn't even seem to have a space to lie down
Don't move here
"Pods are the future of living. Just take this VR headset, your complementary AI wife, and plug in!"
At the University of California in Santa Barbara a billionaire designed a gigantic student dormitory with no windows, just virtual views, so this is not so far off the mark. There were lots of protests and it was never built.
@@berlinorama Yeah, I know about that project. The designer was Charles Munger.
This really makes sense when you aren’t raising a family
No, it doesn't. It's a torture to live like this.
"minimalism" doesn't mean "live in the smallest space possible" afaik. I hope that guy has second normal-size apartament
As much as it is dreadful, two questions will prop up; Are they all occupied? Have they all been sold/pre-sold?
At least people have some place to live, even if it isn't the best
Theyre not occupied. Theyre stupidly expensive, cost more than the minimal salary and minimal salary is equal to renting a 2-bedroom 40sqm flat. So they end up as airbnb 700zl a night. Those are ghost blocks, expensive, tall, shiny and empty
Developers once again try to convince people that they don't need a good living space. They are so desperate to sell their tiny "apartments". Funny fact, the man that gives a tour around the house is a quite famous botanist and a tv persona. I doubt a person like him would live there.
Real estate developers have another way to scam us and convince us that what they have deprived us of is a good thing.
The apartment is big enough for me, just too much stuff. Entertaining a guest/stranger in your bathrobe was the fascinating part of this story for me😮
Mr. Zagajewski forgot to mention that he has a 120 square meter house in Masuria.
You’re being sold an illusion when there’s so much land in the rest of the country, esp when work is more flexible and hybrid for certain segments.
I live in Warsaw in 20 M2 xd i am renting it in same price as I would rent a room. For me it is definitely better than rooms as I want to stay alone and do what I want. Proces for rent in Warsaw are almost on the same level as in western Europe
Prices*
Artur is the most polish man this polish man has seen.
in USA we have apartments that are 0mx0m! Its a crime to live there!