20 Jul BEEHIVE APARTMENTS

Over recent weeks, the news of beehive apartments as a possibility to meet the needs of a certain demand has placed public entities and the public as a whole on alert. This initiative, developed by the company Haibu 4.0, has targeted a building in the neighbourhood of Sants in Barcelona, and has a capacity to include 15 units with a surface area of 3 m per unit, at a price of €250/m2.

Since 1944 there has been a regulation in Spain, the Ministry of the Interior Order of 29 February 1944, which establishes the minimum conditions to be met by all types of dwelling, whatever the company or individual to which it belongs. This regulation remains in force in several autonomous communities, including those with subsequent regulations that qualify that expounded in the ministry order.

On 31 October 2012, the Catalan Government approved a decree to regulate the habitability conditions to be met by dwellings, reducing the minimum surface area that any newly-built apartment must contain from 40 to 36 square metres. The regulation sought to make the design demands of dwellings more flexible and adapt them to the new socio-economic situation, amending the decree approved in 2009 that indicated that new apartments should contain a minimum surface area of 40 square metres.

Any impact requires reflection, especially regarding the source of the reason why these initiatives arise, whether they are reasonable. The need to generate living areas in a city such as Barcelona will lead, in a not too distant future, to the appearance of new and most likely unorthodox initiatives that seek to meet the needs of individuals. The challenge involves balancing the space in the main cities against the number of people wishing to live in them.

Esta iniciativa promovida por la compañía Haibu 4.0, que se concreta en un edificio en el barrio de Sants de Barcelona, y con una capacidad de 15 unidades y superficie por unidad de 3 mts, teniendo que asumir un coste de 250 €/m2, para poder hacer uso de este.