Amidst Sweden’s housing affordability crisis, housing developer Riksbyggen and creative agency BBDO Nordics have designed a micro-home to make the reality of the crisis tangible. The project titled ‘Visualisation of Reality’ translates Sweden’s housing affordability crisis into three full-scale micro-apartments, each representing what an average 25-year-old can realistically afford to buy across Swedish cities. The smallest, in Stockholm, measures just 1.9 square metres. Gothenburg’s measures 3.1 square metres, while Umeå offers a comparatively spacious 4.5 square metres. The dimensions were calculated using Riksbyggen’s Square Metre Index, which considers factors including income, property prices and mortgage conditions.
The campaign turns the concerning statistics into an experience visitors can physically enter.
The projects aim is to translate economic data into inhabitable space, making an otherwise complex social problem immediately understandable. Visitors can see how financial pressures are not simply affecting abstract measures of affordability, but fundamentally reshaping the spaces in which people live. Inside each apartment, essential elements such as a bed, seating, cooking facilities and storage are compressed into an almost impossible footprint. The interiors reference different periods of Swedish architecture, creating a powerful contrast between the country’s architectural heritage and the increasingly limited choices available to younger generations.
