If the economy keeps going the way it is, this will be the future home for our children.

http://business.financialpost.com/2015/01/30/cubitat-unveiled-in-toronto-shrinks-a-whole-house-into-a-10-foot-prefab-box/

I think this would be fine for a person or couple without children. I doubt this take less space than the average 3.5 rooms apartment. If you draw a square around the whole deployed thing it is quite roomy for one or two persons.

Edit: The previous occupants of my apartment were a woman and her teenage son. They both slept in the same bed. It's doubly weird because the room they used as a bedroom can easily accommodate two beds. I made that room into my lab (computer desk, electronic bench, study desk, TV and spare room) and the "living room" which is the smallest room into my bedroom.

Times were tough,I've lived harder than that so I don't see any problems.At least it's a roof over your head.
Try sleeping on a park bench at 14 years of age..

I remember reading two or three months back about an Italian girl who was studying in France and who was living in a much smaller room than that. I'm sure there are quite a lot of people who live like that. The proper question is Who would like to live like that?.

What they present there is not something new. I think you can see something like that every year. A "smart ass" with too much money & free time "inventing" the house which will resolve the homelessness.

Doesn't make sense to me. This would take more space than what a person normally needs and would cost more than other solutions. A cube which has all this functionality on the inside instead of on the outside would have been a lot more interesting.

It looks quite nice actually, but as people have mentioned the space you need to use it renders it a bit pointless...
If we didn't have cats my girlfriend and I would think about one of these mini houses (not this one, a more sensible one) aa they're a greay way to have your own spacs if you can't afford a house.
I prefer the Hexhaus idea though (on my phone so can't post link) which is basically modular hexagon shaped rooms that you can keep adding to, so when you have a bit of extra cash you can buy a couple more rooms :)

A lot of people, trust me... And I would even add that this block is quite a piece of luxury. Like another poster said, if you haven't been homeless yourself, you can't understand what it's really like to have a warm shelter and cherish it....

That being said, I'm a bit puzzled by the design and practical flaws of that cubicle as it inherently needs a bigger room to put it into and I'm wondering about the possible water leaks of the bathroom as the bed is below it (when it's not used).

An affordable solution for younger generations are the container houses which are quickly evolving to be more attractive and still be at low prices. The only thing stopping it are the local stupid "building codes" :(
3.200$ FOB:
http://weidusteelstructure.en.made-in-china.com/product/DKiEBFAPAHkS/China-Smart-Flexible-White-or-Yellow-Prefabricated-Expandable-Container-House-WD102502-.html

Of course, in Canada and northern countries, I don't think it would be good during the winter.

I thought something similar haha.

I'm sceptical to its current design but the concept is not too bad and as someone said earlier, for a single person or perhaps a couple with a somewhat larger cube it could work. I don't mind small spaces as long as it's efficient then one needs less time and energy to transport one's body, that's nice. Even better if one work from "home" at a computer, you can basically isolate and just communicate throw VOIP or video transmission.

Maximize efficiency, a little larger and I could live in one.

Wouldn't a micro-home be a better option

It's not the economy as much as the the fact we're running out of space. The way humanity is multiplying in a generation or two everyone will live like Borg drones, and every square inch of the planet will be built up.

Actually besides the biggest metropolizes, there is ALOT of space around. Longer distances do not matter these days as much as many work could be done from home via internet.

What we really are running out of is (cheap) resources, energy and solving the problem who owns the land.

I also guess many other countries besides Finland, have some political problems - some (rich) people benefit greatly from high housing costs and it is in their benefit to keep such policies in effect.

-> we have lots of space, ridiculously high rents and year-after-year they still arent making real effort to zone more of that sort of residential areas + build em.

This reminds me of <span class="bold">Daniel Price</span>, aka "the thinking man's hobbit", who lives in an underground house smaller than my kitchen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RhbRwWqSfA

Looks funny, but think about countries with big populations or living in one of the mega cities....Tokyo with appartements of 15 qm is normal if you don't want to spent big money.

It's funny because there was just a random link into OP original article wich redirected to someone experience in those "micro-homes":
http://uk.businessinsider.com/i-lived-in-a-tiny-house-2014-8?op=1

BTW, 65K$ is a total rip-off as you can get bigger and furnished trailers for much less than that. Going a step further, with the euro-dollar conversion, that makes around 57K in Euros. So let's check some houses for sale in my area in the 40K€-57K€ price range:
http://www.immoweb.be/fr/Buy.Estate.cfm?IdBien=5049306&amp;xgallery=estates&amp;xpage=1
http://www.immoweb.be/fr/Buy.Estate.cfm?IdBien=5082075&amp;xgallery=estates&amp;xpage=1
http://www.immoweb.be/fr/Buy.Estate.cfm?IdBien=5454632&amp;xgallery=estates&amp;xpage=1
http://www.immoweb.be/fr/Buy.Estate.cfm?IdBien=5249814&amp;xgallery=estates&amp;xpage=1
http://www.immoweb.be/fr/Buy.Estate.cfm?IdBien=5085675&amp;xgallery=estates&amp;xpage=2

With those kind of houses, you won't get the benefits of living in a big trendy city but you won't have to care about rent anymore....