Extremely tiny apartment in Rome

This is a five square meter apartment in the center of Rome. Formerly a porter's closet, it's just been listed for sale at 50,000 Euros. From the Croatian Times:

Described as a "compact bedsit" the property is in one of the city's smartest districts right next to the ancient Pantheon and with Italy's billionaire Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as one of your neighbours.
Mind you, all you can see from the one tiny window is an alley, and only after you have climbed up a ladder to get to the sleeping platform and then crawled across the bed to get there.
Downstairs is a standing-room only bathroom with a shower, sink and a loo behind a folding door.

"Flat rate for world's smallest apartment" (via Fortean Times)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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knoxblox

Needs a trapdoor in the floor that leads to a huge, secret subterranean lair.
scifijazznik

Perfect for the hip, on-the-go minimalist, this smart apartment features a nail in the wall to hang your $300 messenger bag on and just enough space for your extreme minimal coffee gear,
jere7my

The closet is actually huge, but it turns out Fry is already living in it.
Anonymous

Visiting Rome, I learned that a 4-star hotel was merely a 1.5 star with location.
UncaScrooge

I used to rent out a closet in San Francisco to a poet. We charged $80.00 a month.

Don’t get excited, kids! That was nearly 20 years ago! I’m certain we could get $300.00 a month for the same closet now.

The lesson is clear: Poets should run from San Francisco as if it were a non-paying job at a greeting card factory.
- David Pescovitz
  
  Ha! My big brother rented out a closet in San Francisco in the early 1980s! It held his mattress (although not totally flat) but he liked it. And yeah, he said he was only home to sleep so why not!
  - UncaScrooge
    
    If your brother was a poet and his rental closet had a window, cheers to your family. He was the best roommate I ever had.
    - David Pescovitz
      
      Nope, actor. And his closet had no window to the outside, although I do recall that there was a window in the closet door.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Living in closets is pretty common in SF. Bitterly ironic that people move there to come out of the closet and end up renting one.
- jordan
  
  Poets: they sleep standing up. Or upside-down from clothing rails… like bats. I always suspected this; thanks for the confirmation.
  
  I once saw a portaledge over a doorway in a Manhattan apartment for rent on craigslist; I forget how much it cost, but was more more expensive than one may have imagined. That was during the summer of 2000.
  
  As an apartment hunter and climber, I was torn: shocking to charge so much for a portaledge, but there’d be something undeliably boho-cool about having a downtown bivvy.
  - knoxblox
    
    I think I came across that same portaledge while scanning Craigslist last year!
Brainspore

I’m reminded of a certain episode from “Flight of the Conchords.”

Also: does “standing room only bathroom” mean you have to hover over the bowl?
dhartagnan

This is also called a “snail house.” I’ve been living in China and this report (with lots of pictures!) from ChinaSmack documents some of the weirdest and roughest – but definitely smallest – places that some people call home.

http://www.chinasmack.com/2010/pictures/snail-houses-poor-chinese-coping-with-high-housing-prices.html
Anonymous

This is called a bolt hole.

It is a bare necessities place to live temporarily. Boltholes are typically built discretely in already existing facilities, often converted from disused storage areas. The reason most boltholes exist is for hiding someone.

Given Italy’s history, I imagine these are fairly common throughout her major cities. It’s simply unusual for one to be in the public spoltlight, as they are relatively valuable to the sorts of people who create them, as is their secret nature. I imagine the building was deemed no longer suitable for operations and was sold, the bolthole along with it, and the new owners (none the wiser) want to profit from renting out the bolthole it contains.

~D. Walker
Michael Smith

If you invite your date home for “coffee” the only place to sit will be on the bed.
Anonymous

It’s called a “bed/sit” – where’s the “sit” part – on the loo?
Anonymous

Well, this one’s not as small, but it’s pretty awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg9qnWg9kak
Anonymous

whateva! it’s bigger than my first new york apartment!
rebdav

This is brilliant. Anyone who loves travel and has some creativity could buy this place and have a primary or vacation residence. The modern idea of a home as a palace is useless for many people, unfortunately many jurisdictions worldwide forbid affordable housing alternatives like this. Combine this with a folding bicycle, some touring gear, and a laptop and you can live a very interesting life.
- dculberson
  
  I agree; this is really cool.
gilesbowkett

Location, location, location! if I had the spare cash, I’d love to have a place in Rome.
hassenpfeffer

Uh, Croatian Times, not Fortean Times. Slight difference. ;-)
turn_self_off

Sounds like the place to live if one have functional VR. Who cares where the meat is, the brain is anywhere but…
dqkennard

The sleeping platform would count toward square footage, so it looks more like 8m^2. Replace the folding door with a slider, so less space is required when the door is opened. Make the stairs be drawers, so you’re basically climbing up a dresser. Get a membership in some club that has a shower, so you can reclaim that space, maybe for hanging clothes. Put built-ins on all walls, for storage, fold-down table, etc. Think like a boat builder: fiendishly clever with space, and everything gets put away when unused. Polished wood and brass everywhere.
- chgoliz
  
  I agree with your ideas (and have used some of those details myself in the past), except I’d like to point out that the “shower” is almost certainly just a nozzle attached to a flexible hose with a drain in the floor, so it’s not taking up any space anyway.
  
  And really, it’s not like you’d be having company over, so a shower curtain instead of a folding/sliding door makes even more sense from both a space and ease-of-use perspective.
The Mudshark

Admittedly the immediate neighborhood of Berlusconi does sound mighty alluring but I think IÂ´ll pass.