I’m not a big fan of death. In fact, I believe very few people are. It has this rather exasperating way of making life very difficult. Though it would seem some people find inspiration in what death brings with it and I’m not talking about rigor mortis.

Kacey Wong, an artist and designer from Hong Kong, has come up with a practically great idea, but an aesthetically terrifying one. She has designed Famiglia Grande - portable shelters for middle class people who have lost their homes in the economic crisis. Brilliant. They look like coffins. That’s a problem.

Understandably, people without shelter would live in a box if they had to, anything to help them escape the cold and give them somewhere somewhat comforting to live. But I would still feel somewhat uncomfortable sleeping in a makeshift shelter that very closely resembles a deathbed – that is also in the shape of a person.

And they come in different sizes. There’s one for mother, one for father and small ones for the kids. It has the makings of a vampire movie all over it and I just can’t help but feel disconcerted. The shelters remind me, not only of coffins, but those medieval torture devices known as Iron Maidens – the ones with spikes on the inside that impaled people when the door was shut. Yes, those ones. Yet, the photograph shows me a little child, curled up, sleeping in one. It’s enough to make my skin crawl.

Nevertheless, I will cede and at least give Wong some praise. Torture device or not, the units are convenient, well, as convenient as a tin shelter used by “homeless” people can be. Maybe next time she will consider making them look less like coffins and more like boxes in which people live.

I’m not expecting fully furnished homes, but I know caravans work. Then again, if you can get affordable shelter, why look a gift horse in the mouth? 

[Via: Dezeen]