Life in a Box: Inside Hong Kong's Tiny Apartments

We have already written about the inhumane living conditions in Hong Kong apartments-coffins, more like cages, where people huddle for an unthinkable fee for such an area. This time photographer Benny Lam took a series of photos from a different angle. He imagined life in the "coffins" through the eyes of residents.

Miniature wooden boxes with a total area of 1.5 square meters are called "coffin booths". In fact, it is a bed covered with wooden boards. 

The inhabitants of these wooden "coffins" are residents of different ages and genders, and this is the only dwelling they can afford.

The apartment with an area of about 36 square meters is divided into 20 such wooden "coffins".

Hong Kong, with a population of almost 7.5 million people, has become the most expensive housing market on the planet. There is almost no land left in the megalopolis for further development, which is why a terrible side effect called "coffin compartments" appeared.

About 200 thousand Hong Kongers live in such terrible housing conditions.

The UN called these tiny rooms with an area of about 1.5 square meters. meters "an insult to human dignity," and National Geographic photographer Benny Lam showed in his impressive series of photographs called "Trapped".

Describing the living conditions in these "apartments", usually lost in the neon light of Hong Kong, the photographer said: 

Kitchen and toilet in one room.