Halfway down the Danube

Living small

I am behind on furnishing the new digs. (The dresser, the new bed, et cetera.) But I did find this shop in the East Village which has stuff suitable for New York City's micro-apartments, which mine will be should I let the books take over (again). I was especially taken by this little sewing machine. I know, I know, a serious machine isn't much bigger than a typical computer peripheral, and I suppose I'll eventually succumb to their allure. But I still admire the cleverness behind this little guy's design, you know?

Manhattan has famously tiny apartments. But check out this European 2.6 meter cube, designed by people who studied the ergonomics of airplane lavatories. This article in Detail has more information; unfortunately, the public access version of the article has an embargo strip covering the meat of the text, but if you're clever, you can puzzle out most of it.

Incidentally, in the same issue there's an article on the treehouse dwelling people of New Guinea, the Korowai, who experienced sustained contact with the outside world beginning in the 1980s. (They're mostly living in compounds now.)