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Shinook: - Fridge
Depending on the types of food you deal with a fridge is unnecessary. Dry goods, beans/rice, jerky, etc. Some foods like eggs don't need refrigeration (Unless of course you remove that protective film to 'clean' it).

Of course if you add enough salt to some of your foods they spoil slower as wel.

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XYCat: More importantly I'd ask myself "What do I have to do to not getting in situations in which I'd have to get rid of stuff that I actually use and is valuable? How do I prevent stuffing myself into a box with just a bed and a washing machine?".
This microhabitat is obviously usable only for like commuters or for temporary housing or a cheap hotel rooms because it's just not fit for a longterm living as you can't fit any stuff in there and you most definitely can't raise a family in there.

<snip>

This cubitat is obviously not designed to be a home. It's just that roof over a person's, a single person's, head.
It's actually the opposite. When you have a lot of room, you want to fill that space. When you have little room, you don't want to fill the space. Sorta reverse psychology.

More importantly you should ask who is convincing you that you need all that stuff? The answer is probably the corporations, the same greedy machines that once were wholesome until their founders died.

As for what's fit for long term living, why should the size of your bed determine any of that? If we look to birds who's nests this in many ways duplicates, they sleep in the nests but unless they are raising young they don't spend 100% of their time in there, making it pointless as a measurement.

Although not directly posted here, you might watch several videos from Kirsten Dirksen who documents a lot of small and simple houses. Some of them don't have running water or showers, quite often the space is tiny. A few the teenage boy has the loft, his own personal 40 square foot area that's his own where he can't even stand. Some are highly transformative and seem larger than they are because they re-form what the living area is based on needs. Some are made from cod (mud/dirt/sand/grasses, etc) and made by hand. At the very beginning of her journey she experimented where they lived out of a car for something like 2 months, and their car became their home. The cardboard house although was an experiment proved to work just fine. etc etc.

I suppose, you just have to live the life. I was in the military and for the better part of basic training, AIT, and while in the field, my belongings included only what was needed: A duffel bag, and a bed. You really don't need a lot of items or space to thrive; But what you do own has to be well thought.

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Klumpen0815: As an instrument maker and knowing a leading harp maker, I can only cringe at this statement.
It was a rough idea, i'm sure you could make it work if you planned it or made a cavity for amplifying the sound and used a steel frame it would work better. I don't make instruments, but it doesn't seem like it would be incredibly hard to incorporate one into your home with just a little planning.
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Klumpen0815: As an instrument maker and knowing a leading harp maker, I can only cringe at this statement.
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rtcvb32: It was a rough idea, i'm sure you could make it work if you planned it or made a cavity for amplifying the sound and used a steel frame it would work better. I don't make instruments, but it doesn't seem like it would be incredibly hard to incorporate one into your home with just a little planning.
It would take a bloody lot of space if it's supposed to work well.
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EBToriginal: Credit where credit is due Utah already solved the homelessness problem, just no one else seems to like the answer.
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monkeydelarge: A state like Utah can never solve the homelessness problem.
No,
but seriously Utah started giving homeless people apartments and social workers because it's cheaper than jail and the ER.
We're overlooking one obvious question: who wants to live in Utah?

It's all the dead aimless desert of Nevada without all the gambling and prostitution. PASS! :D
Post edited February 02, 2015 by tinyE
This could be a boon for adulterers: you want to get some strange, don't want to risk being caught going in and out of a hotel, and also want something you can personalize. The solution? A 10-foot Love Cube!
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Crosmando: Does it have internet access?
Sort of. There's room for the 1s, but the 0s are too fat and they won't fit inside.
Post edited February 02, 2015 by HereForTheBeer
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Shinook: - Fridge
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rtcvb32: Depending on the types of food you deal with a fridge is unnecessary. Dry goods, beans/rice, jerky, etc. Some foods like eggs don't need refrigeration (Unless of course you remove that protective film to 'clean' it).

Of course if you add enough salt to some of your foods they spoil slower as wel.

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XYCat: More importantly I'd ask myself "What do I have to do to not getting in situations in which I'd have to get rid of stuff that I actually use and is valuable? How do I prevent stuffing myself into a box with just a bed and a washing machine?".
This microhabitat is obviously usable only for like commuters or for temporary housing or a cheap hotel rooms because it's just not fit for a longterm living as you can't fit any stuff in there and you most definitely can't raise a family in there.

<snip>

This cubitat is obviously not designed to be a home. It's just that roof over a person's, a single person's, head.
avatar
rtcvb32: It's actually the opposite. When you have a lot of room, you want to fill that space. When you have little room, you don't want to fill the space. Sorta reverse psychology.

More importantly you should ask who is convincing you that you need all that stuff? The answer is probably the corporations, the same greedy machines that once were wholesome until their founders died.

As for what's fit for long term living, why should the size of your bed determine any of that? If we look to birds who's nests this in many ways duplicates, they sleep in the nests but unless they are raising young they don't spend 100% of their time in there, making it pointless as a measurement.

Although not directly posted here, you might watch several videos from Kirsten Dirksen who documents a lot of small and simple houses. Some of them don't have running water or showers, quite often the space is tiny. A few the teenage boy has the loft, his own personal 40 square foot area that's his own where he can't even stand. Some are highly transformative and seem larger than they are because they re-form what the living area is based on needs. Some are made from cod (mud/dirt/sand/grasses, etc) and made by hand. At the very beginning of her journey she experimented where they lived out of a car for something like 2 months, and their car became their home. The cardboard house although was an experiment proved to work just fine. etc etc.

I suppose, you just have to live the life. I was in the military and for the better part of basic training, AIT, and while in the field, my belongings included only what was needed: A duffel bag, and a bed. You really don't need a lot of items or space to thrive; But what you do own has to be well thought.

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Klumpen0815: As an instrument maker and knowing a leading harp maker, I can only cringe at this statement.
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rtcvb32: It was a rough idea, i'm sure you could make it work if you planned it or made a cavity for amplifying the sound and used a steel frame it would work better. I don't make instruments, but it doesn't seem like it would be incredibly hard to incorporate one into your home with just a little planning.
People had books and toys and whatever before any "corporations" existed. And usually "corporations" tend to try to make people read less books rather than more books.

If we look at the monkey cage down the zoo, the monkeys might start throwing their shit around. However, people are not monkeys so they don't throw shit around and they're also not birds so they don't have habits of any bird species in the world.

Raising one child on like two square meters is extremely stressful for both parents and the child. Yeah sure mongolian rural huts etc. aren't much bigger but the kids, even the little toddlers, are participating in day to day life all over the place as those people are in the country tending to their crops and farm animals. That's not likely to happen if a family was supposed to live in a box in the center of a large city.
The only thing that would happen would be a seriously deprived child as there would be no place for it to play around and there would be no toys to play with. And that's just a single child. Two or three children? Yeah well that's just not possible. And again, the rural habitats of poor-ish farmers in various kinds of places on earth consist of quite large families living in small homes but again it's the countryside. That's a huge difference of lifestyle as you can't have children running around motorways without any children's corner or a playground. In the country everything's a playground and there's a million things to do, unlike in the middle of the city. And cubitats on the outskirts of the city? Well that's obviously not what they're for.
Another thing is the books again. Children need books, unless you want them to be stupid. I'm quite aware that there are parts of the world with a lot of families not having any books for children. But they tell them stories anyway because unlike western people they spend the whole day with the kids and there's always someone around to tell them stories. Western life is pretty much different. It is not a common western practice to like tend to the field with your child on your back or even for kids to listen to their grandpa ranting is less and less common. It is however an important thing. Since the dawn of mankind people told stories to kids because it actually helps their development, it's not just a pasttime.
The same goes for music, excercises etc. Kids actually need this and stuffing a family into a box doesn't really help. But the thing is this cubitat is not designed to house a family. It's for singles mainly as a temporary housing or for commuters who actually have a regular home somplace other than where they spend the whole week working and living in a box.

Yeah sure you can live wherever you want but not being able to stand upright in your own home? Not healthy. Sleeping in a sitting position or whatever? Not healthy. Having two kids in a box in the center of a large crowded city? That can't be called "unhealthy", that's pretty much living hell for all involved.



My personal lifestyle is of living in a small two rooms + kitchen and a bathroom flat. There were five of us living in here back in the day. Me, my parents and my two siblings who are quite older than me. It was very frustrating for me especially not to have any kind of private space. My parents and siblings dealt with it somehow but I'm fairly sure it left some damage on me. However, my home is filled with books and other stuff including toys for my siblings' kids when they visit and various kinds of personal stuff. The books take the largest portions of the space but they're actually very useful, it's not just like all fiction or something. Most of the books I actually needed to get through university etc.
Anyway, having a home filled with stuff you like, stuff you need and stuff with sentimental or actual monetary value is just how people in the western world live.
These boxes aren't made for that. If you work in another town and you need to stay there for the whole week then it's fine. If you need to stay someplace for like a month and then you go home then it's cool, rent a cubitat. Want to get married and raise a family? Well then you might want to reconsider moving into a cubitat.

The point is that there are people with various lifestyles and needs and not all of them see the institution of a "home" only as a bed and a roof over it.
That cube was never meant to fit all lifestyles and people already mentioned the exception that no parents should raise children with small amount of space if possible to have something larger.

Regarding books, there are e-readers. Nowadays kids play with gadgets when they are only a few years old. It's a pity e-readers aren't that common as they could be. Regarding books for university, I would love to have all of mine in my e-reader, tablet, phone and computer, would make work so much more convenient and efficient.

I agree with the opinion that we want stuff and that this kind of small box is a reflection of overpopulation, not good design even if I like its concept.
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joelandsonja: If the economy keeps going the way it is, this will be the future home for our children.

http://business.financialpost.com/2015/01/30/cubitat-unveiled-in-toronto-shrinks-a-whole-house-into-a-10-foot-prefab-box/
I love micro-houses. I think the movement is actually ace. Small, practical living, rather than huge houses that you fill with clutter you don't really need. And there's so many wonderful and individual solutions, too: Samples. Also: Smaller living space = less heating costs / more sustainable. It's hard generating enough electricity / hot water using renewables for a full size house - much easier with smaller ones. Land costs less, less materials.

[But then I'd also consider living on a Narrowboat and have spend a couple months living in a tent ...].
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Mnemon: I love micro-houses. I think the movement is actually ace. Small, practical living, rather than huge houses that you fill with clutter you don't really need. And there's so many wonderful and individual solutions, too: Samples. Also: Smaller living space = less heating costs / more sustainable. It's hard generating enough electricity / hot water using renewables for a full size house - much easier with smaller ones. Land costs less, less materials.
I disagree about the heating costs. I live near the sea, where the humidity is almost all year long around 80%-85%. You need to have either full time heating to keep the humidity and mold out or you need to air the whole house regularly, in which case you need to heat afterwards so your ass doesn't freeze. I lived in a small 2 room apartment and I live right now in a house, and I can tell it's better to have more rooms when high humidity is in question.
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Mnemon: I love micro-houses. I think the movement is actually ace. Small, practical living, rather than huge houses that you fill with clutter you don't really need. And there's so many wonderful and individual solutions, too: Samples. Also: Smaller living space = less heating costs / more sustainable. It's hard generating enough electricity / hot water using renewables for a full size house - much easier with smaller ones. Land costs less, less materials.
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plex0m4n: I disagree about the heating costs. I live near the sea, where the humidity is almost all year long around 80%-85%. You need to have either full time heating to keep the humidity and mold out or you need to air the whole house regularly, in which case you need to heat afterwards so your ass doesn't freeze. I lived in a small 2 room apartment and I live right now in a house, and I can tell it's better to have more rooms when high humidity is in question.
I don't know if that's also because of the Bergmann rule (the same animals in colder regions are bigger, because due to higher body volume they relatively need less energy), but it kind of reminds me of it. It's btw the same with houses with multiple flats, if all flats are heating your own heating costs will go down. If some flats are empty and cold, the others need to heat more.
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monkeydelarge: A state like Utah can never solve the homelessness problem.
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EBToriginal: No,
but seriously Utah started giving homeless people apartments and social workers because it's cheaper than jail and the ER.
WOW, I'm shocked. I thought a state like Utah would just send all the homeless people to the desert to die. Utah has solved the homeless problem. Giving them apartments is the intelligent thing to do. Because, now that they don't have to deal with being homeless, they can start fixing their lives. Of course, there are a percentage who will just continue to do drugs all day but at least now they won't be outside 24/7 annoying people and shitting on the sidewalk.
Post edited February 03, 2015 by monkeydelarge
this is prison..there is still enough space on earth to build normal houses
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RottenRotz: this is prison..there is still enough space on earth to build normal houses
Land has great value... That is why *certain* people, throughout eons, invest only in gold, and land.

Time and space (land), IS money, friend! Unfortunately...
Post edited February 03, 2015 by KiNgBrAdLeY7
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EBToriginal: No,
but seriously Utah started giving homeless people apartments and social workers because it's cheaper than jail and the ER.
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monkeydelarge: WOW, I'm shocked. I thought a state like Utah would just send all the homeless people to the desert to die. Utah has solved the homeless problem. Giving them apartments is the intelligent thing to do. Because, now that they don't have to deal with being homeless, they can start fixing their lives. Of course, there are a percentage who will just continue to do drugs all day but at least now they won't be outside 24/7 annoying people and shitting on the sidewalk.
Yeah turns out a stable address is a major barrier to services and employment.
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joelandsonja: If the economy keeps going the way it is, this will be the future home for our children.

http://business.financialpost.com/2015/01/30/cubitat-unveiled-in-toronto-shrinks-a-whole-house-into-a-10-foot-prefab-box/
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Mnemon: I love micro-houses. I think the movement is actually ace. Small, practical living, rather than huge houses that you fill with clutter you don't really need. And there's so many wonderful and individual solutions, too: Samples. Also: Smaller living space = less heating costs / more sustainable. It's hard generating enough electricity / hot water using renewables for a full size house - much easier with smaller ones. Land costs less, less materials.

[But then I'd also consider living on a Narrowboat and have spend a couple months living in a tent ...].
I can see how it could be enjoyable for some people, but living with children would be a nightmare. =)