Flexi Living
An apartment system with flexible rent and space for urban dweller.
Sponsored by Google Android
Team FAST: Felix Choi, Alan Lee, Sarineh Issagholian, Tina Kong
2016 Spark Awards: Silver
Rent Made Flexible
Inspired by the Cage Living situation in Hong Kong and its people's living and physiological struggles, we wanted to address the global challenge of space and living in the city. People who work and live in popular cities like New York, Tokyo, and San Francisco are also facing space and living challenges.
Flexi is a small space living apartment system that can be customized to fit the tenant's personal financial standing and needs. Flexi enables tenants to save on rent and build the future they desire.
Flexible rent, space, and facilities
One of the key features of Flexi is that it enables people who are living in the Flexi apartment system to have flexible rent. The user can decide how big the room they want to live in, what facilities they will use, and how much money they are willing to pay for the next month.
Flexi room size, rent, and facilities
Flexi floor plan
Manage through the mobile app
The Flexi app allows users to manage their room's rent and size through their mobile device. By drag and dropping the facilities icons into the room above, users are able to adjust their facility rentals for the month.
Move in date
Add facilities
Schedule storage
Negotiate space with neighbors
When there is no available space to expand the room, each resident can negotiate space with neighbors on the same floor; they have the freedom to exchange space with money. People can now make extra money by giving up some of their space to their neighbor.
Process
Problems
About 200,000 people are living in Hong Kong in what the government calls “Inadequate Housing”, also known as Cage Home. The ridiculous house pricing (Avg. $10,475 / sq. ft.) force the low-income population to live in urban slums. Since the rent in Hong Kong is not going down, they cannot afford to improve their living quality.
Interview
We interviewed a social worker and a Hong Kong real estate appraiser to have a better understanding of the Cage Living situation.