'Honeycomb housing'? Barcelona says 'no'

Haibu 4.0 has its sights set on the Sants-Bada neighbourhood and has plans for 'flats' of just three square metres (32.3 square feet).

They would be 2.2 metres (about 7' 2”) long, and 1.2 metres (3'11”) wide and high, meaning any child of about seven years old or over, let alone adults, would not be able to stand up in them.

The idea is that the hexagonal 'tubes', slotted one above the other in the wall in a honeycomb pattern, would contain just a bed, bedside cabinet and a shelf.

Residents would share communal bathrooms, kitchens and lounge-diners.

Included in the €200- to €250-a-month rental price, tenants would have a regular cleaning service, Wi-Fi air-conditioning, security, and a 24-hour helpline they could ring to solve any problems arising, including maintenance.

Electricity and water bills would be included in the price.

Haibu 4.0 says it would be a type of 'commune' and is 'not designed for profit, but to fill a social need'.

“We don't let and we don't sell – it's more like a residential community or association,” Haibu 4.0 says.

Haibu is the Japanese word for 'beehive', although the firm is based in Barcelona and run by Marc Olivé and Eddie Wattenwill.

Barcelona's mayoress Ada Colau says she is not aware of any planning permission being submitted, but would not allow the 'hive' to be built in any case, since metropolitan bye-laws do not allow living accommodation to be less than 40 square metres (431 square feet).

Although residents in the city claim they have seen adverts for flats of as little as 30 or even 20 square metres, these self-contained properties – effectively, a bedsit – would still be more comfortable than a sitting-room-only tube in the wall.

Typical rent prices in Barcelona city are around €600-plus per month in addition to all utility bills, although in smaller towns in the Mediterranean and southern coastal provinces, even in well-connected and built-up areas close to a beach, decent properties of at least two or three bedrooms can be rented for between €250 and €350 a month.

The Haibu idea is already common in Japan, but not for full-time living: 'beehive' or 'capsule' hotels with shared lounge-diners and bathdrooms, where guests rent a bed-tube, are a cheap option for tourists and business travellers who only want to stay one or two nights in the same city, will be out all day and most of the evening, and merely want their accommodation as a place to sleep overnight.

Photograph: Haibu 4.0