Pipe dream? Hong Kong architect proposes low-cost tube homes

Hong Kong's notoriously expensive housing makes owning an affordable home a pipe dream for many residents.

A local architect has proposed a novel idea to help alleviate that problem: building stylish micro-apartments inside giant concrete drainage pipes.

This Tuesday, March 13, 2018, photo shows an OPod tube home created by architect James Law at Hong Kong's industrial area of Kwun Tong. Hong Kong’s notoriously expensive housing makes owning an affordable home a pipe dream for many residents.  (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

James Law's OPod Tube Housing is still just at the conceptual stage, but it's attracted attention as an innovative though untested way to deal with housing shortages.

At 100 square feet (9.3 square meters) the tube houses are not that much smaller than Hong Kong's infamous "cubicle homes" — older apartments subdivided into cramped and squalid living spaces. They're roomier than other types of tenement housing, such as so-called "coffin" and "cage" homes.

The idea came to Law when he spotted some leftover storm sewer drain pipes at a construction site.

They might be converted into "really cute micro-living architecture," he said.

This Tuesday, March 13, 2018, photo shows an OPod tube house created by architect James Law at Hong Kong's industrial area of Kwun Tong. Hong Kong’s notoriously expensive housing makes owning an affordable home a pipe dream for many residents. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Law has only built a prototype to test public interest but has already received inquiries from around the world.

There's a lot crammed into the OPod. It consists of two sections of 2.5-meter (about 8 foot) diameter pipes fitted with glass doors on both ends. A living area inside includes a bench that converts into a bed, opposite shelves on the facing, curving wall. Another shelf fits a bar fridge and a microwave next to a galley sink beneath an air conditioner. A tiled bathroom at the end includes a combined shower and toilet.

The OPod cost $15,000 to build. Law said he envisions renting them out for less than $400 a month to recent graduates on low incomes trying to get a foot on the housing ladder. That's a fraction of the market rate.

"My dream is the OPods will be a new kind of living for young people just starting out in life," Law said.

In this Tuesday, March 13, 2018, photo, architect James Law poses during an interview at his OPod tube house in Hong Kong's industrial area of Kwun Tong. Hong Kong’s notoriously expensive housing makes owning an affordable home a pipe dream for many residents. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

It's less a long-term solution to Hong Kong's housing crisis than a novel way to make use of leftover spaces where conventional housing doesn't fit. The pipe homes could be stacked into gaps between buildings, under highway overpasses or on the roofs of existing buildings.

"This kind of house is really portable. We (can) actually make it in a construction site and then we lift it onto a truck and we can deliver it anywhere," Law said. "So it represents a new, affordable architecture."

In this Tuesday, March 13, 2018, photo, architect James Law sits at an OPod tube house in Hong Kong's industrial area of Kwun Tong. Hong Kong’s notoriously expensive housing makes owning an affordable home a pipe dream for many residents. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

HONG KONG (AP) — Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday that one of its representatives was denied entry into Hong Kong, calling it a “new decline” in the city’s press freedoms.

According to the group, its Taipei-based staffer Aleksandra Bielakowska was stopped at the airport by immigration officers. She was detained, questioned and had her belongings searched three times before she was denied entry, said the group, also known by its French acronym RSF.

“This action by the Hong Kong authorities, unprecedented for RSF, marks a new decline in the already poor press freedom climate in the territory,” RSF said in a statement.

Bielakowska was to meet journalists and attend a hearing at the trial of Jimmy Lai, the media tycoon and founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper who is facing national security charges.

The Immigration Department did not comment when contacted after business hours.

Rebecca Vincent, RSF’s director of campaigns, said the group had “never experienced such blatant efforts by authorities to evade scrutiny of court proceedings in any country.”

A major crackdown on dissent has taken place in Hong Kong since the massive anti-government protests in 2019. After Beijing imposed a new national security law on the city, dozens of pro-democracy activists have been arrested and charged. Also, electoral laws have been overhauled to ensure that only “patriots” loyal to Beijing can run for office.

Police have also frozen assets and raided the newsrooms of pro-democracy media outlets, eventually forcing them to cease operations. In March, Hong Kong lawmakers approved the Article 23 security bill, which includes maximum penalties of life imprisonment for offences such as treason and insurrection.

Two former Stand News editors are expected to hear a verdict in their case this month after being charged under a colonial-era sedition law, and in March, U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia said that its Hong Kong bureau has been closed because of safety concerns under the new national security law.

Once seen as a bastion of media freedom in Asia, Hong Kong has since plummeted in press freedom rankings. The semi-autonomous city currently ranks 140th out of 180 countries in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index. In 2002, Hong Kong was ranked 18th.

FILE - A lawmaker holds a copy of the proposed Safeguarding National Security Bill at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, March 19, 2024. The United States sees Hong Kong's new national security law as a tool to potentially silence dissent both at home and abroad, but has tread carefully so far in responding, a disappointment to those fighting for democracy and freedoms in the Chinese territory. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte, File)