With a population of nearly 7.5 million and very little developable land remaining, Hong Kong has become the least affordable real estate market, making so-called 'coffin cubicles' common. United Nations have condemned these nightmarish living spaces as "an insult to human dignity," but according to the Society for Community Organisation, for some 200,000 people, it's still the only alternative.
"That day, I came home and cried," Benny Lam told National Geographic, describing his experience of photographing said tiny apartments. With his series "Trapped," Lam seeks to illuminate the suffocating local dwellings that stand outside the reach of Hong Kong's glamorous neon lights.
"You may wonder why we should care, as the Hong Kong population isn't a part of our lives," Lam wrote on his Facebook page. "They are exactly the people who come into your life every single day: they are serving you as the waiters in the restaurants where you eat, they are the security guards in the shopping malls you wander around, or the cleaners and the delivery men on the streets you pass through. The only difference between them and us is [the quality of life]. This is a question of human dignity."
"From cooking to sleeping, all activities take place in these tiny homes," said Lam. To create the 'coffin cubicles,' flats are usually illegally divided into 15 - 120-square-foot (roughly, 1,5-12 m²) 'apartments.' To illustrate, Wong Tat-ming, 63, who is on benefits after sclerosis in his leg left him unable to drive a taxi, lives in an 18-square-feet dwelling for about $307 (HK$2,400) a month.
More info: Facebook (h/t: nationalgeographic)
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S**t just go live in your car at least you'd have windows and a choice of view... actually if you live here I guess you can't afford one
At first I thought it was a picture from the International Space Station! ^_^
It's the criss cross pattern on the metal walls I think. You can see it on the ceiling too.
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it strangely resemble the way they pack animals in such small space when they are ready to take them to be killed. how horrible.
I can hardly stand to see this! We protest caged puppy farms here! But this is horrible!
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If they're going to live like that....They need to get rid of some s**t. They don't need that many bags! Stars Wars can stay! Haha :)
Forced minimalist living... wow, I couldn't imagine. My heart hurts for these poor souls.
Amelia, I don't think 'boredom' is a primary concern for these poor souls. Lou, where exactly would he put a small dog when there isn't enough room for him? And Tiffany...lotion for a reason? Really? SMH.
Think about this next time you want to complain about what you don't have in life.
@Rokas L: as discussed on many posts before, please do not forget to add SI units for the rest of us. 15-120 sq ft translate to 1,5-12 m². I needed to calculate this, to get a better idea. Particularly the lower end (1,5 m²) is even more depressing than the photos are. Most civicised countries have a magnitude of that as minimum space for prisoners, as everything else would be considered inhumane...
thanks, Hans, i've updated the text to a more metric-friendly one
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Hong Kong is also a very wealthy city, this hideous disparity in terms of wealth needs to end!
That looks almost unbelievable! There has got to be a way to improve these conditions! I have seen treehouses more luxurious than this
My tent is more luxurious, but point is that nothing will change.
Load More Replies... This is all too common in many major world cities. The lowest people on the wage earning scale that provide the necessarty labor to maintain simple infrastructure often cannot afford to live in the very cities they work in. I live in the midwest of the US (Oklahoma), where my wages are pretty high and our cost of living is realtively low. Some would say living in a medium city of approximately 1 million in a flyover state must be boring and lackluster, but I have access to the latest concerts and shows, can see world class art on display, in less than one hour be in the country swimming and boating at a lake or just enjoying a drive on an empty rural road... and I do not live in a phone box. The huge cities are a great place to visit but...
That makes it even sadder... This is robbing them of so much. I'd go nuts living like that. Those poor people :-(
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Was thinking the same. But... is there an "outside"???
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It's sad and lonely... But sincerely, I think it's better then live in the streets, completely homeless...
This is just wrong and sad. Thank you for bringing to light this awful problem. Hopefully it can be fixed.
As someone who has restless leg syndrome, this is like hell to me. I can't imagine not being able to walk in my apartment. Horrible! And yes, I am claustrophobic too, double hell.
I've jammed every bit of furniture in my room against the walls. I don't have space to spread out a puzzle or dance, but I can pace back and forth whenever I need, without bashing into things. It's a need for me, a Heaven-sent gift to have the room I have. I also couldn't imagine such a small cramped space, just a bed. I think I would end up throwing out most of my beloved sentimental objects just to make the space feel a little less aweful.
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One has to wonder if life's worth living if you're spending 10 hours a day in these cubicles and cooking a meal while someone is defecating six inches away from you. Ugh.
Housing standards are always closely related to the quality of governance in the relevant area, i.e. most people are aware of how spacious are houses in the US, while there can be significant differences in quality of that housing because poor governance in some states. HK is the part of China, where the quality of housing significantly varies depending on the province. Who allows for such a situation in HK? I blame the local government. Obviously there is more to that, but the underlying issue is the lack of vision by allowing the economy to be heavy concentrated in the small geographic areas, unsustainable architectural planing, ineffective social support system that should educate people about opportunities outside of the ‘matrix’ etc, etc.
I sometimes think the world would be better off blowing up or something to that effect, the divide between people is disgusting, some people have so much, more than they'll ever need and some people have so little or nothing. This is just heart breaking to think that this is their daily life.
I just realized, on the last picture (slapping forehead), that no one can stand up. So, little ventilation and perhaps no natural light in some, no heating, no bathroom (perhaps a common bath?). It is indeed like a cage.
I remember watching this Hong Kong movie in the 80s about caged families, as in families living in caged cubicles with an apartment. It really breaks my heart that 30 years down the road, the cages are now coffins.
thats an amazing eye opener...makes me realized that I should be grateful for the home I have right now.
It's actually quite clever idea... Storage for humans ;) If you look for multi flats buildings, they look anyway like cages for lab animals... Why we need home? It is only shelter from weather, The rest of life should be outside, not hidding ourselfs from others in concrete blocks...
As bad as these look, they are far preferable to sleeping under a bridge with a shopping cart for your possessions. Like the old saying goes, "I thought it was terrible to have no shoes till I met the man with no feet".
No window? Where is the ventilation? So depressing! As the population grows, conditions will worsen. Looks like they'll need birth control like they had in China.
well at least they have some place to live. in the US lots of ppl live on the streets or leke over 1000 people live in sewage tunnels in Las Vegas
It makes me think that the capitalist system is not a perfect system, as many people say...
Wow this is definitely sad. If these things have electricity, one small electrical fire would kill everyone.
These people are in Hong Kong and they are part of China....Communism.
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i do understand they are somehow forced to live like this, but honestly, do they need to have so much garbage and s**t inside? I would try to live as minimalistic as possible...
Sooo, let's see...put all your things you would need for your minimalistic life on your bed and then see if it looks neat or like garbage. Remember to put everything there, from toiletteries, to work clothes, kitchen items, winter and summer clothing, electronics, food, memorabilia...anything that's not on your bed, you cannot access anymore. And then think about doing that on minimal wage, meaning that "get this cool small laptop with huge storing space for all my music and films and streaming speed" is not in the budget. Small and practical items are expensive.
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This puts so many of my "first world problems" into proper perspective. I am so humbled after seeing this. It's unreal and, in my opinion, inhumane. It makes me grateful for everything I have and take for granted, and makes me want to share all of it.
Sadly HK is overpopulated! These coffin cubicles are at least 2.5k to 3k monthly depending on location. Monthly income for these guys are at most between 6k-8k, may be less as I'm estimating, and they still need to buy food. They may have applied for government housing too, which takes at least 5-10 years to get one depending on the government's condition. (Government housing, of course, has a bigger space). The government houses are in demand now and building them takes long. Living like this is inhumane, they also need to go to public bathrooms to do their business.
I am so grateful for what I have here in the U.S.A. I am not uncomfortable with small spaces but these pictures make me very uncomfortable. I hope these people get the change they deserve and are able to live in a reasonable living space.
Excuse my french, but holy s**t! I spent 3 months in a 100 sq ft rental once and could barely stand to be with myself. Never again! And that was voluntary. These really are an insult to humanity.
Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like living in Kowloon walled city.
I agree with one of the replys - think of these poor people next time we want to gripe about what we don't have!
I could never live like this and thank God I don't have to! I walk out of my bedroom and look at my beautiful apartment every day and I am eternally grateful!
I want to kiss the walls of my dumpy old apartment with its aging hippie/early Salvation Army decor. It's a palace compared to those suffocating little boxes. I imagine a person would spend most of his/her time outdoors.
During British colonial times, in government housing each person was allotted 2m square, a bit larger. Cooking in the hall & communal heads.
-1985- a HK college student in Taipei visited his friend's house and said, Your bathroom is bigger than my family's home in gov't housing.
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These hard-working poor people live worse than the most hardened criminals in the USA who lives in much bigger spaces for free!! And, they have to pay for these tiny coffin closets, too! There's something simply not right about that.
I hate writing on iPads. ...who live in much bigger spaces...
Load More Replies... I can't imagine living in one of these. I would feel too claustrophobic to sleep in there. Is there any ventilation provided?
omg... no human being should live like this I'd rather live in the jungle.
I live by myself in a three bedroom, two bath ranch in the country....I can't imagine living like this. I am so grateful to live in the first world.
Imagine living in these for more than 30 years... I would die in the second I get there! Poor people... I feel really sorry for them ;(
Wow! People in prison have larger living spaces! I got the screaming meemies just thinking about having to live like that.
That's not living, that's just existing. People shouldn't have to life like this! But I'm also guilty, wearing cheap clothes and wanting a new smartphone.
Where are those "closet-houses"? Can we see them from the outside? Photo someone!?
Why don't they telecommute from their remote farms? 4G internet shouldn't be too hard to set up.
These are like Bender's apartment. They are meant for robots, not humans!
These are like Bender's apartment. Suitable for a robot but not a human!
How disgustingly! Not to mention unhealthy. My house isn't the best but oh my dear God I feel grateful for home I have after viewing this!
is it weird that I want to try living in confined limited spaces like these? being cut off from the wide noisy world and only in your own little quiet cocoon is strangely positively appealing to me (I am what you call asocial btw).
I think it would be nice to have a small hideout like this, but not your entire home.
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I agree that this is horrible, but moving to a more affordable place (different city) is always an option. I'm guessing 307 dollars a month could go a long way somewhere else. So at least some of these people have a valid reason for staying there.
Well, you have to shove your entire house into that tiny space. Not cozy.
Load More Replies... 
Think about this next time you want to complain about what you don't have in life.
@Rokas L: as discussed on many posts before, please do not forget to add SI units for the rest of us. 15-120 sq ft translate to 1,5-12 m². I needed to calculate this, to get a better idea. Particularly the lower end (1,5 m²) is even more depressing than the photos are. Most civicised countries have a magnitude of that as minimum space for prisoners, as everything else would be considered inhumane...
thanks, Hans, i've updated the text to a more metric-friendly one
Load More Replies... Hong Kong is also a very wealthy city, this hideous disparity in terms of wealth needs to end!
That looks almost unbelievable! There has got to be a way to improve these conditions! I have seen treehouses more luxurious than this
My tent is more luxurious, but point is that nothing will change.
Load More Replies... This is all too common in many major world cities. The lowest people on the wage earning scale that provide the necessarty labor to maintain simple infrastructure often cannot afford to live in the very cities they work in. I live in the midwest of the US (Oklahoma), where my wages are pretty high and our cost of living is realtively low. Some would say living in a medium city of approximately 1 million in a flyover state must be boring and lackluster, but I have access to the latest concerts and shows, can see world class art on display, in less than one hour be in the country swimming and boating at a lake or just enjoying a drive on an empty rural road... and I do not live in a phone box. The huge cities are a great place to visit but...
That makes it even sadder... This is robbing them of so much. I'd go nuts living like that. Those poor people :-(
Load More Replies... Was thinking the same. But... is there an "outside"???
Load More Replies... It's sad and lonely... But sincerely, I think it's better then live in the streets, completely homeless...
This is just wrong and sad. Thank you for bringing to light this awful problem. Hopefully it can be fixed.
As someone who has restless leg syndrome, this is like hell to me. I can't imagine not being able to walk in my apartment. Horrible! And yes, I am claustrophobic too, double hell.
I've jammed every bit of furniture in my room against the walls. I don't have space to spread out a puzzle or dance, but I can pace back and forth whenever I need, without bashing into things. It's a need for me, a Heaven-sent gift to have the room I have. I also couldn't imagine such a small cramped space, just a bed. I think I would end up throwing out most of my beloved sentimental objects just to make the space feel a little less aweful.
Load More Replies... One has to wonder if life's worth living if you're spending 10 hours a day in these cubicles and cooking a meal while someone is defecating six inches away from you. Ugh.
Housing standards are always closely related to the quality of governance in the relevant area, i.e. most people are aware of how spacious are houses in the US, while there can be significant differences in quality of that housing because poor governance in some states. HK is the part of China, where the quality of housing significantly varies depending on the province. Who allows for such a situation in HK? I blame the local government. Obviously there is more to that, but the underlying issue is the lack of vision by allowing the economy to be heavy concentrated in the small geographic areas, unsustainable architectural planing, ineffective social support system that should educate people about opportunities outside of the ‘matrix’ etc, etc.
I sometimes think the world would be better off blowing up or something to that effect, the divide between people is disgusting, some people have so much, more than they'll ever need and some people have so little or nothing. This is just heart breaking to think that this is their daily life.
I just realized, on the last picture (slapping forehead), that no one can stand up. So, little ventilation and perhaps no natural light in some, no heating, no bathroom (perhaps a common bath?). It is indeed like a cage.
I remember watching this Hong Kong movie in the 80s about caged families, as in families living in caged cubicles with an apartment. It really breaks my heart that 30 years down the road, the cages are now coffins.
thats an amazing eye opener...makes me realized that I should be grateful for the home I have right now.
It's actually quite clever idea... Storage for humans ;) If you look for multi flats buildings, they look anyway like cages for lab animals... Why we need home? It is only shelter from weather, The rest of life should be outside, not hidding ourselfs from others in concrete blocks...
As bad as these look, they are far preferable to sleeping under a bridge with a shopping cart for your possessions. Like the old saying goes, "I thought it was terrible to have no shoes till I met the man with no feet".
No window? Where is the ventilation? So depressing! As the population grows, conditions will worsen. Looks like they'll need birth control like they had in China.
well at least they have some place to live. in the US lots of ppl live on the streets or leke over 1000 people live in sewage tunnels in Las Vegas
It makes me think that the capitalist system is not a perfect system, as many people say...
Wow this is definitely sad. If these things have electricity, one small electrical fire would kill everyone.
These people are in Hong Kong and they are part of China....Communism.
Load More Replies... i do understand they are somehow forced to live like this, but honestly, do they need to have so much garbage and s**t inside? I would try to live as minimalistic as possible...
Sooo, let's see...put all your things you would need for your minimalistic life on your bed and then see if it looks neat or like garbage. Remember to put everything there, from toiletteries, to work clothes, kitchen items, winter and summer clothing, electronics, food, memorabilia...anything that's not on your bed, you cannot access anymore. And then think about doing that on minimal wage, meaning that "get this cool small laptop with huge storing space for all my music and films and streaming speed" is not in the budget. Small and practical items are expensive.
Load More Replies... This puts so many of my "first world problems" into proper perspective. I am so humbled after seeing this. It's unreal and, in my opinion, inhumane. It makes me grateful for everything I have and take for granted, and makes me want to share all of it.
Sadly HK is overpopulated! These coffin cubicles are at least 2.5k to 3k monthly depending on location. Monthly income for these guys are at most between 6k-8k, may be less as I'm estimating, and they still need to buy food. They may have applied for government housing too, which takes at least 5-10 years to get one depending on the government's condition. (Government housing, of course, has a bigger space). The government houses are in demand now and building them takes long. Living like this is inhumane, they also need to go to public bathrooms to do their business.
I am so grateful for what I have here in the U.S.A. I am not uncomfortable with small spaces but these pictures make me very uncomfortable. I hope these people get the change they deserve and are able to live in a reasonable living space.
Excuse my french, but holy s**t! I spent 3 months in a 100 sq ft rental once and could barely stand to be with myself. Never again! And that was voluntary. These really are an insult to humanity.
Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like living in Kowloon walled city.
I agree with one of the replys - think of these poor people next time we want to gripe about what we don't have!
I could never live like this and thank God I don't have to! I walk out of my bedroom and look at my beautiful apartment every day and I am eternally grateful!
I want to kiss the walls of my dumpy old apartment with its aging hippie/early Salvation Army decor. It's a palace compared to those suffocating little boxes. I imagine a person would spend most of his/her time outdoors.
During British colonial times, in government housing each person was allotted 2m square, a bit larger. Cooking in the hall & communal heads.
-1985- a HK college student in Taipei visited his friend's house and said, Your bathroom is bigger than my family's home in gov't housing.
Load More Replies... These hard-working poor people live worse than the most hardened criminals in the USA who lives in much bigger spaces for free!! And, they have to pay for these tiny coffin closets, too! There's something simply not right about that.
I hate writing on iPads. ...who live in much bigger spaces...
Load More Replies... I can't imagine living in one of these. I would feel too claustrophobic to sleep in there. Is there any ventilation provided?
omg... no human being should live like this I'd rather live in the jungle.
I live by myself in a three bedroom, two bath ranch in the country....I can't imagine living like this. I am so grateful to live in the first world.
Imagine living in these for more than 30 years... I would die in the second I get there! Poor people... I feel really sorry for them ;(
Wow! People in prison have larger living spaces! I got the screaming meemies just thinking about having to live like that.
That's not living, that's just existing. People shouldn't have to life like this! But I'm also guilty, wearing cheap clothes and wanting a new smartphone.
Where are those "closet-houses"? Can we see them from the outside? Photo someone!?
Why don't they telecommute from their remote farms? 4G internet shouldn't be too hard to set up.
These are like Bender's apartment. They are meant for robots, not humans!
These are like Bender's apartment. Suitable for a robot but not a human!
How disgustingly! Not to mention unhealthy. My house isn't the best but oh my dear God I feel grateful for home I have after viewing this!
is it weird that I want to try living in confined limited spaces like these? being cut off from the wide noisy world and only in your own little quiet cocoon is strangely positively appealing to me (I am what you call asocial btw).
I think it would be nice to have a small hideout like this, but not your entire home.
Load More Replies... I agree that this is horrible, but moving to a more affordable place (different city) is always an option. I'm guessing 307 dollars a month could go a long way somewhere else. So at least some of these people have a valid reason for staying there.
Well, you have to shove your entire house into that tiny space. Not cozy.
Load More Replies... 
