Small is beautiful ...and cheap

Turning Japanese
Mini apartments usually have one thing in common - an excellent location. Tokyo apartments are famous for being among the most expensive in the world. Around 6,000 people live in each square kilometre of the city. In Warsaw the figure is around 550 people. The capsule-apartment idea was conceived to provide accommodation to the hard-pressed Japanese on weekdays (they work so much that there is no point travelling to their permanent residences every day). Admittedly, Europe does not have such problems with population density. However, since the credit crunch the size of apartments has started to shrink at an alarming rate. Fewer and fewer people can afford homes larger than 50 sqm. Students are in an even worse situation, as they have no chance of getting a mortgage for such a "huge" flat.
Student city
Wrocław is an academic centre, where app. 140,000 people study every year. The unique Starter project has been set up these students in mind. In terms of price, it is intended to compete with halls of residence, and in terms of size, with the Japanese capsules. In April, Dolnośląskie ?Inwestycje started the conversion of the former Hotel Asystenta on the Wybrzeże Ludwika Pasteura embankment. When the work is completed, the block of flats, designed by architects Krystyna and Marian Barski and built in the 1960s, will include app. 170 apartments with areas ranging from 12.24 sqm to 23.39 sqm. "They will be luxury-apartment standard flats. The building will include a porter's lodge, a laundry room, a café/club, as well as a bicycle storage room for 500 bikes. The entire building will be air-conditioned," claims Marta Łosińska, the Starter project's sales office manager. However, the luxury will come at a price. You will have to spend between PLN 7,650 and PLN 9,840 per sqm. The smallest and cheapest apartment will cost around PLN 100,000. According to the investor, the purchase of such an apartment should pay for itself within seven years. "The people most interested in buying an apartment of this type are second year students. They have very definite requirements when it comes to their accommodation, and our building has an excellent location in the neighbourhood ?of the universities," adds Marta Łosińska.
Squeezing it all in
The project is surprising, not only in terms of room size, but also in the design concepts for these miniature interiors. "Our inspiration, among others, came from the modular furniture of Italian company Clei, which serves many functions at one time in small interiors. Such solutions are of course very expensive, and for this reason we have entered into cooperation with a local carpentry company, which will make multifunctional furniture according to our designs at the clients' request," explains Cezary Zubrzycki of the Wrocław-based March Architekci architectural studio. Thanks to this specially designed and colourful furniture, it will be possible to fit in a desk, a bed, a wardrobe, bookshelves, a kitchenette with a bar for having meals on and a bathroom including a shower in an area of just over 12 sqm.
Bookish existence The first stage of the project is to be finished in January 2013. However, this will not be the end of the project. "We are currently designing the second stage along similar lines. The building will be designed with students in mind. It will inspired by the shape of a bookcase and constructed of concrete, so as to correspond to the modernist character of the buildings located nearby," reveals Cezary Zubrzycki. Around 510 apartments are planned for the facility, and most will probably have an area of 24 sqm - slightly more than in the first stage. "We have received a lot of interest from developers interested in this type of project in the first few weeks since starting the sale of the project's first stage. But before going ahead with such a development it is, however, important to remember that a building with so many small apartments only makes sense in an excellent location," concludes Cezary Zubrzycki.