Would you ever consider living inside a concrete water pipe? No worries, the pipe is not underground and there’s no water in it. It’s actually a very chic and modern micro apartment of sorts, just over 8 ft wide and fitted with living, cooking and bathing facilities. This prototype project is called OPod and was developed by studio James Law Cybertecture, its main goal being to offer an affordable housing solution for densely populated cities such as Hong Kong. The idea of these cylindrical tube structures is that they can fit in the gaps between existing buildings and that they can be stacked

These concrete pipe homes can be stacked on top of one another and structures similar to apartment buildings can be createdThe interior is small and has curved walls which in the bathroom are hovered in hexagonal tilesA typical OPod includes a living space, a small kitchen station and a bathroom compartment at the rear

These unusual concrete pods can serve as starter homes and they allow 1 or 2 people to find an affordable and cozy living space in a crowded city center in a place where there was previously nothing. They’re modular and they weigh around 22 tons. The installation cost is kept low since no bolts or brackets are needed to secure the pods. That allow the total cost of one of these tiny concrete pipe homes to be just a little over $15,000. For this money you’d get a cozy little home with curved concrete walls, a flat wooden floor, a glazed front facade, a bench seat that doubles as a bed, a cooking station and a bathroom compartment with a shower and a toilet.

Natural light enters through the glazed front panel which doubles as a smart door that can be unlocked via smartphoneA flat wooden floor is installed inside the pod to make moving around easier and to provide a more stable surface for furnitureSeveral of these cylindrical pods can fit in the gaps between existing buildings in cities where finding vacant houses is a problemThanks to this ingenious solution one can now move into a busy city center even if there are no vacant apartments in the areaAn OPod is a tiny home fitted inside a 2.5 meter wide concrete water pipe, with an interior space of 9.29 square metersThe OPods are not just for the gaps between buildings. You can install them just about anywhereThe plans show how these ingenious homes function and how they manage to remain affordable