Microdwellings are gaining urban appeal

Revivals in downtown urban living, tighter budgetary constraints – especially for Millennials – and a growth in green thinking have all neatly led up to one quirky, funny, cute and, perhaps, sad trend: Microdwellings. This growing breed of tiny house or apartment is cleverly designed for a single person and includes things like toilets tucked discreetly in corners of living rooms and multi-purpose, collapsible furniture that can do things like morph from a coffee table to a dining table. The micro apartment trend started in Asia, where real estate can be particularly dense and expensive, and is now catching on in Australia and New Zealand, among other places. Many microdwellers claim not to miss the space to swing a cat, and they say that that the advantages (read: lower costs) far outweigh the cons of living in a pad the size of a prison cell. While certainly not everyone will agree that tinier is better, miniature apartments are gaining traction along with a shift towards simpler, more modest and environmentally friendly living.