Japanese sleeping pods enter Barcelona on the sly

BARCELONA, Spain — For the past few weeks, Harry Kajevic has been sleeping in a 2.4-square-meter capsule apartment in a clandestine location.

He is one of the first residents of a “beehive”-style housing project, inspired by those in Japan or Hong Kong. The project opened in Barcelona despite not having a permit from the city authorities.

The initiative by the Spanish startup company Haibu consists of 20 tiny living pods, which include a bed and nightstand.

They are housed side by side in a building with a shared kitchen, bathroom and terrace — all for a mere 200 euros ($225) a month, at least in Kajevic’s case.

Furniture is sparse, limited in the communal area to a few tables, chairs and a wardrobe for each resident. It is too big for the private rooms.

Haibu, which means beehive in Japanese, argues that the project is a solution to a shortage of affordable housing in the Spanish city.

But Barcelona’s city hall said that such tiny accommodation is unfit for humans and violates local building laws.

“For me, this is decent housing. I go out into the streets clean and fed, I rest when I sleep,” said Kajevic, a 42-year-old burly Austrian truck driver, who just moved back to Barcelona after a previous period in the city.

But the capsules violate the law, which states that a person must live in at least five square meters.

Not even the largest pods aimed for couples are that size.

The smallest are two meters long, 1.2 meters wide and just 1.2 meters in height, meaning an adult cannot stand up in them.

The monthly rent varies between 125 and 325 euros, depending on the room size, number of residents and location.

“They are slums, they are not dignified housing,” said Barcelona’s councilor in charge of urban planning, Janet Sanz.

Haibu presents the project as a social initiative. The company says it will offer residents professional counseling and that it will not exceed a five-percent profit.

“The goal is for people to come for just a brief period, get on their feet financially and move on,” said Marc Oliver, one of Haibu’s founders.

The company cannot sign rental contracts, so instead it sells a monthly membership fee in a legal association, giving residents the right to live in the housing.

Despite the risk of legal action, Oliver said the company was “charging ahead”.

“We have opened this beehive and we are going to open 17 beehives in total in Barcelona,” said Oliver, who also plans to set up similar projects in Paris, Washington or Copenhagen.