Experimental Homes

By JING XIAOLEI

Experimental Homes

By JING XIAOLEI

Creative Chinese are inventing novel and extraordinary houses of their own to escape unbearably high property costs in major cities

Twenty-four-year-old Dai Haifei lived in an “egg” for two months in Beijing.He is among millions of youth who have come from all parts of China to the mega city to pursue their dreams, but find difficulty coping with the high living cost. So, he decided to build a home by himself, an egg-shaped home that costs little to live in.

“I want to have a home of my own, no need to be too big, as long as it shelters me from the sun and the rain, he said on his blog explaining the egg house. “I do not want to live in a remote corner of the city.”

Born in rural Shaoyang, Hunan Province,Dai tried to convince his parents, a construction worker and a cleaner, to go back to the countryside to enjoy farm life instead of struggling in the city to make money for their son to buy a house and marry. “But they don’t know it will take 200-300 years to buy a house in Beijing with their salary,” said Dai.

Near the end of his time at university, Dai managed to find an internship at a Beijing-based company, Standard Architecture, in 2009. The company was involved in the “egg of the city” design project, which endeavors to provide movable small homes for struggling groups of people in the city such as migrant workers, the college students and street vendors. The project includes the KTV house, bench house, small shop house, fruit stand, recycler house and backpackers’ house.

Inspired by the project Dai decided to build his own house in Hunan. After graduation, he took his idea to one of his teachers,Tang Doudou, who had been very supportive and arranged a few friends to help out with Dai’s work. Dai also had fi nical support from his cousin who lent 7,000 yuan ($1,060)for the construction of the house, which basically consists of steel, wood and bamboo.

Dai worked from July to September.Material costs added up to 6,400 yuan ($969).Afterward, the “egg house” was transported from Hunan to Beijing, ending up in his company’s compound. Moving the house cost 3,500 yuan ($538). “So, I have owned a house of my own costing no more than 10,000 yuan ($1,538),” Dai said.

Despite its low cost, the wheeled “house”features a few green technologies. There’s a solar panel installed on top of the “egg”to store power for lighting. Under the bed there’s a water pump system, which can hold water for basic washing for about three days.On the outside of the “egg,” grass seeds were planted and some have already sprouted.

The double-side life in the “egg”

“I can get to work within seconds, no need to be on a crowded bus. This is considered a luxury in traffic congested Beijing,”said Dai in his blog post.

Dai used to rent a room, but he found it was still too much for a recent graduate like him. “I used to rent one of those huge rooms divided into many small rooms with wooden boards. Only a couple square meters cost 800-900 yuan ($123-138) a month.” Now he’s used the money he saved from not paying rent to pay for an annual gym pass, where he can go swimming, take showers and use the sauna. There’s no room for a kitchen in the egg, so Dai has to have dinner at various local restaurants around his workplace, which has saved him a lot of time cooking.

On weekends he goes to a coffee shop to read or ride a bike around old alleys. “When the function of a house is so simple as just one bed,other things are taken care of in public places.This is a free lifestyle,” Dai said.

After Dai put up his post about the pictures of his “egg” home and the life in it, it caused an Internet sensation and the media followed.Many netizens posted their questions about Dai’s novel way of living. Dai confessed there were inevitable disadvantages living in the unusual home. He had to get most of his water and electricity supply from his company.

CFP

NOVEL HOME: The “egg” house built by 24-year-old Dai Haifei has attracted a lot of attention in Beijing

One other problem is heat, as the egg doesn’t hold heat in very well, so Dai bought a sleeping bag to keep warm.

The tough way out

After two months of living in the egg, the movable home was ordered to be removed by city managers saying it didn’t conform to housing standards. The act stirred great dispute about the existence of the unusual house. Many agree that the “egg” might not be legal, but the novel idea and creation need to be supported.

“The ‘egg’ house is something of a creative design and you can’t impose the standards of ordinary residential buildings on it,” said professor Zhou Yanmin from the architecture school of Tsinghua University,who also sang praise of its green concept.

As the average cost of buying and renting a house is continually rising, it has become a top concern for young people who want to live in major cities across China. In early 2010, Song Xiuqi, a former senior official from Shandong Province, suggested China make use of its old containers, as the country has nearly 1.2 million such containers retired. He said it is possible to make containers into houses for migrating population in big cities, and that such houses can be used for at least 50 years.

“In some developed countries, containers have already been made into houses and hotels, three to fi ve stories on average. And the construction work is much simpler and easier,” said Song, adding that rental for such houses can be 200 to 300 yuan ($30-46)per month, which is reasonable for migrant workers and recent graduates.

Also in April this year, 78-year-old Huang Rixin had built eight units of “capsule apartment” in Haidian District in Beijing, to help those who just graduated from college and can’t afford the high rentals. His idea was inspired by a newspaper article about Japanese capsule hotels—tiny rooms that only fi t one person yet provide amenities and privacy.

Each unit of the “capsule apartment” is less than 2 square meters, but in the unit tenant can lie down, sit, watch TV and go on the Internet. The monthly rental is between 200 and 250 yuan ($30-38).

“Young people in Japan enjoy that way of living. It’s a country with limited land.The situation in Beijing and Shanghai is much the same and I believe it can become popular in China,” said Huang, who has continued to build more tiny apartments in different places in Beijing.

As the “egg” house initiator, Standard Architecture has a vision for the future of new migrating residences. They want to provide a comfortable, movable home for the urban migrating population and they believe such an idea and concept could bring good fortune to future urban life.

Dai and his company have been contacting the related government department to ask for approval for such new and brave ideas.“I hope when spring comes, my ‘egg’ house will be covered by green grass with me living inside it again,” he said.