Bigger isn't better with micro condos

Micro-condos are on the rise in urban centers across North America, including New York City. After winning the adAPT NYC apartment design competition in 2013, nArchitects was awarded a city contract to build a micro-condo pilot that could address the city's changing housing needs. My Micro NYC, which should be completed next year, will have 55 units between 250 and 370 square feet.

Vancouver's Burns Block, unveiled in 2011, offers micro-lofts in the city's rapidly gentrifying Gastown neighborhood, and is popular with students and young professionals.

When they are not being rented, FLATS Chicago's micro-units--which they describe only as "significantly under 300 square feet"-- are also used for short stays. This unit has been fitted with bunk beds and a fold-out couch to accommodate up to three. (Most long-term renters opt for a full bed instead.)

Pocket Living has already completed seven micro-condos across six London boroughs, and shows no sign of slowing down. They recently received funding from the mayor of London to aid in the creation of about 400 units for middle-income buyers. Units in their Camden development (pictured) range from 269 to 408 square feet.

Completed in 2013, these micro-lofts were part of the $10 million restoration of Rhode Island's historic Arcade Providence, America's oldest shopping small. Units range from 225 to 450 square feet, and come fitted with built-in furniture.

The Wolf Hall Apartments are part of an on-going $2 billion redevelopment of the Washington D.C. southwest waterfront, and are scheduled to be completed by 2017. The building, which will be connected to a music hall, will offer units between 325 and 354 square feet, as well as larger units to appeal to a range of millenial buyers.

The LEED Platinum-rated SmartSpace SoMa condo boasts 295-square-foot units that emphasize utility and optimized space. The queen bed, for example, can be converted into a table that seats six.

There may be 130 condos under construction in Toronto this year -- more than any other city in North America -- but Smart House is the city's first and only micro-condo, with units starting at 289 square feet. The 25-storey building is set to be completed in 2017.

• Micro-condos -- units under 500 square feet -- are a growing trend in cities like New York, San Francisco and London


• Developers are targeting millenials who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford properties in major Western cities


• The units are designed to be hyper-functional and stylish to appeal to design-conscious young buyers

(CNN) -- Could you fit your life into 300 square feet? Developers are betting on it, positioning tiny living spaces as a new status symbol for urban millennials.

Chic, central and closet-sized, micro-condos -- loosely defined as units under 500 square feet -- are being marketed as luxury rentals or a stylish first step onto the property ladder. While small units are already the norm in high-density Asian megacities and old European neighborhoods, major U.S. cities like New York and San Francisco are leading a new charge in North America with others quickly following suit.

"What these great world cities have in common is a scarcity of the resource called land and a large number of people who want to work and play in these cities," says Mark Vlessing, co-founder of London developer Pocket Living.

Could you live in 300-sq.-ft. apartment?

Living in a shipping container

According to a report from Neilson, an American consumer research company, 40% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 36 want to live in urban areas instead of the suburbs their parents idealized, but 69% feel they don't earn enough to afford the lifestyle they covet. High rent, rising property prices, and growing demand make finding an affordable home harder than ever.

Local governments have taken notice. New York City, for one, has waved its minimum 400-square-foot housing requirement for a pilot project with units between 250 and 370 square feet. Last year, Pocket Living -- which makes 400-square-foot units for those who earn less than around $100,000 a year -- received roughly $36 million from the mayor of London to build approximately 400 units for first-time home buyers. Small units are seen as an affordable way to make cities accessible to more people.

Read: Can magic boxes solve urban housing conundrum?

This was the case for Andrea Wong, a hair stylist living in Vancouver. In 2012, unable to afford a centrally located apartment, she decided to move into a unit in Burns Block, the city's first micro-condo. Most of the studios she'd seen rented for around $1,400 a month, so her 291-square-feet apartment -- the building's largest -- seemed like a steal at $1,000.

The bedroom of a Pocket Living unit in London.

But it was the design, she says, that she sealed the deal. The tiny space -- all enamel-like white cupboards, foldout tables, and wall-mounted design hacks -- was not only smart, but stylish.

"I wanted something that looked pretty modern. The use of space was really good," she says. "I didn't feel like I was living in a jail cell or anything."

Her friends marveled. Her place was officially cool.

Maxwell Ryan, the New York-based founder of home design website Apartment Therapy, isn't surprised that micro-condo developers are pushing design and utility as their major selling points. To him, it shows an awareness of how generational priorities have shifted.

Living small in New York City

Ever live in a place this tiny?

"As a culture, there's been a renaissance of interest in design -- design as a lifestyle choice, design as a way of life," he says.

Ryan believes young people will happily accept smaller spaces, but only if done properly.

Would you live in a parking garage?

"When you design a small space, you can design it in a way that has more utility and expansiveness," he says, going on to quote Charles Eames, one of the 20th century's most celebrated product designers: "I have never been forced to accept compromises, but I have willingly accepted constraints."

Read: The rise and rise of the "McMansion"

It's a maxim Smart House, an upcoming micro-condo project in Toronto, exemplifies. The designs, masterminded by architecture firm architectsAlliance, are stylish, with seemingly endless concealed storage, contemporary finishes, and floor-to-ceiling windows. Drawers become dishwashers and refrigerators. Couches fold into beds and walls. A number of elements, like a bathtub and oven, have been left out. But even these omissions are meant to cater to the millennial lifestyle.

"This generation wants to live within the city," says Peter Clewes, of architectsAlliance.

When they aren't working, they're eating out with friends and enjoying city life, not spending time at home. For a unit that offers elegance on a budget (Smart House units, which have yet to go on sale, will likely start at $285,000), Clewes thinks they'll be willing to make a few sacrifices.

"Five years ago, if you suggested units of 258 square feet, people would say that's mean, that's immoral. But that's starting to flip the other way," Clewes says. "It's become a moral cause. We need all (income) groups to make a healthy city."

A micro-loft in Vancouver's Burns Block building.

Courtesy Reliance Properties Ltd.

No one seems to know whether tenants or owners will look at micro-condos as temporary stops, or something more permanent. Certain elements seem so tailored to a certain lifestyle they risk being outgrown by those they so carefully target.

For Wong, the initial novelty of micro-living wore off as time wore on. She started to resent not having space for her screen-printing and acrylics projects, or an oven for cooking. When it came time to renew her yearlong lease, she decided to move to a 620-square-foot unit across the street, even though it cost almost $400 more per month.

Today, Wong lives with her boyfriend in a 900-square-foot apartment in East Vancouver. Now 35, she's more focused on settling down. But she doesn't regret giving micro-condos a try.

"My lifestyle has changed a lot since I lived down there," she says. "I liked being there at the time, but I like the space I have now."

Read: Swimming pools and golf ranges in London's insane luxury basements

Read: Are hipsters ruining urban communities?

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The artist who draws with humans

Turksih artist Erdal Inci makes Istanbul come alive in GIFs. Above is titled 'Stumblers'.

• Turkish artist Erdil Inci clones himself on GIFs to make surreal patterns


• He stages public performances in Istanbul when no one is around


• He views his work at the video equivalent of music

Viewing this on your mobile device? Click here to view Inci's GIFs.

(CNN) -- To Erdal Inci, GIFs are a form of visual music.

"When I started to look at the physics of music, I saw something that is unchanging. It's like you have a unique moment, and it repeats endlessly in the form of musical notes. I realized that I could do the same thing in video."

The Turkish digital artist has made a name for himself -- both online and in the gallery circuit -- for his surreal, looping works. In keeping with the demands of the art form, Inci's videos consist of short, one- to two-second clips looped in an endless run. Istanbul features prominently in the backdrop of his work, as does Inci himself.

"The city has really nice scenery and a beautiful light scene. I've decided to use this beautiful scenery as a decoration of some show. I've decided to use it as a set," he says.

Inci seems to favor theater terms. Though his audience tends to view his work from their living rooms, he still sees what he does as a public performance, albeit it one in which he plays all the roles.

He is the cast. Though there may be only one of him, he is able to use cloning tools to make more. He is also the crew; he is at once choreographer, director, editor and distributor.

"You can't put on a show in a public space without permission from the municipality. If you want a crowd scene, you need too many people. With this technique, I have a chance to show choreography to people in any possible place, like Taksim Square. And I just need one person. That's why I use myself -- it's the easiest way to do it. When you clone yourself, you can create an army that will move as you want. You don't need any production or special cameras," he says.

His looping selfie army can be slightly comical, but it can also be eerie and haunting, which is precisely the effect he's going for.

"Sometimes people tell me they find my work spooky or scary. To hear that the work makes people feel something is the best comment for me," he says.

Though his GIFs, once looped, contain a mere second or two of footage, it can take Inci as much as ten days to film and edit a single piece. To make sure he is alone with his city when filming, he usually sets up his camera on a fixed tripod between 3am and 5am.

"Some people are out that time of day," he concedes.

'Hierapolis Amphitheatre'

"Sometimes they won't see the camera, because it's far away, and they'll just see me streaming nonsense, or running on a spiral path, like a crazy man."

Inci says he finds comfort in the patterns he's able to create using just himself, a light source and the background.

"I create a human pattern. I can fill a space with those patterns. I have a chance to draw a line with people. The repetition makes me personally relaxed," he says.

Read: What would Scarface look like in a fez?

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Ill boy's parents plead for proton therapy

• Parents who took son with brain cancer to Spain refuse to return to UK voluntarily, court says


• They took Ashya King, 5, from British hospital without authorization, police say


• The father says there was a disagreement over his son's course of treatment


• Parents are in prison until judge decides on charges, court says

(CNN) -- The British couple arrested in Spain after pulling their cancer-stricken son out of a Southampton Hospital told a judge they will not return to the UK voluntarily, according to a Madrid court where they appeared on Monday.

Brett and Naghmeh King remain in a Spanish prison while the judge awaits information from a hospital in Malaga about the medical status of 5-year-old Ashya King, who has brain cancer.

His parents can be detained for 72 hours in Spain before the judge has to decide whether they acted illegally when they defied doctors last week, took their son and sparked an international search for the child.

Hotel staff members in Malaga, Spain, recognized Ashya and his family from media coverage and contacted police. Ashya was taken to Materno Infantil Hospital in Spain, and that facility was communicating with University Hospital Southampton, where the boy had been removed by his parents, hospital official said.

Brett King defended his actions in a YouTube video made shortly before his arrest. He accuses two doctors at the British hospital for not allowing him to seek proton beam treatment outside of Britain, even though he said he was ready to pay for the treatment himself.

Boy with brain cancer found

"We pleaded with them for proton beam treatment. They looked at me straight in the face and said with his cancer, which is called medulloblastoma, it would have no benefit whatsoever." King said he then looked on the Internet and found sites in the United States, France and Switzerland on proton beam treatment that "said the opposite that it would be beneficial for him."

The Kings traveled to Malaga with their six children to sell a home they own there, in order to "look for better treatment" for Ashya, said their Spanish lawyer, Juan Isidro Fernandez.

The hospital in Southampton issued a statement saying they discussed proton beam radiotherapy with Ashya's parents.

"We very much regret that the communication and relationship with the King family had broken down in this way and that for whatever reason they have lost confidence in us," said Dr. Michael Marsh, medical director at University Hospital Southampton. "Our first concern is for Ashya's welfare"

Marsh said some tumors respond well to proton beam treatment, but "there are some cases where there isn't the evidence that this is a beneficial treatment," he said. The hospital statement did not give specifics about Ashya's case.

The 5-year-old's ordeal has captured the attention of British Prime Minister David Cameron.

"I think people up and down the country will understand and be moved by the grave illness from which Ashya is suffering. The priority must be that he receives the most appropriate care," the Prime Minister's official spokesman said.

Ashya's brother Naveed posted a video on YouTube explaining how the family cared for the sick child while traveling to Spain. "This video shows information that would help in court to show that Ashya was not neglected whilst not in Hospital," the video caption reads.

Only if the Spanish judge decides that the King's acted illegally can the process of extraditing them back to the United Kingdom begin, court officials said.

In the United states, only a handful of hospitals offer proton-beam therapy after surgery, including Massachusetts General Hospital, where the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy was treated for brain cancer in 2008. He died just a year after his surgery for malignant glioma.

That surgery was followed by six weeks of radiation. Kennedy wrote about his experience in a Newsweek magazine article at the time that he underwent proton-beam therapy.

The theory behind proton therapy is that its high-energy particles zone in specifically on the tumor and so do not harm the surrounding healthy tissue as much as the X-ray photons in conventional therapy, said Dr. Donald O'Rourke, associate professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

CNN's Joyce Joseph and Taylor Phillip contributed to this story

Paradise island with a conscience

High tide at Nihiwatu's famed 2.5-kilometer-long beach on Indonesia's Sumba island. Hard to access, the beach remains rather private for the hotel and its surrounding villages.

The hotel was built by Claude Graves, who spent four years searching for the perfect spot (and perfect wave). With views like this it's hard to argue much. The famed surf break is just visible in the left of frame.

A not too graceful attempt to ride what locals call The Wave. If the board was any bigger you could put a motor on it and take passengers. Surfers are limited to 10 at any time at Nihiwatu and it is advised to book ahead during peak times.

That's more like it. A reasonably normal Nihiwatu surf day. The break, formed over a natural rocky reef, is regarded as one of the best left-hand breaks in the world.

There's more than surfing. A standup paddleboard trip to nearby Wanukaku river winds through local villages ...

... where local kids are more than happy to jump on the board, try and knock you off, or hitch a ride. Or all three.

The hotel has 22 villas with 10 more to be completed in around six months. This is a two-bedroom version.

With more than 300 Sumbanese workers, the hotel is the largest employer on the island.

Horses play a big role in Sumbanese culture, which remains fiercely tribal and territorial. Males generally carry swords. Each February and March the island hosts the Pasola Festival, featuring dozens of horseback riders throwing wooden spears at each other.

It's a beautiful scene at dusk and low tide, when villagers from Nihiwatu (seen against the horizon here) descend on the rocky reef, collecting fish, crab and other shellfish.

The hotel incorporates local styles to integrate with the environment (the building to the right opens as a bar in the evening). It's won several sustainability and eco-awards. All profits from the hotel go to the Sumba Foundation, which supports the local community.

Not far from the hotel, a hill village might as well be a world away. Some settlements here have existed for thousands of years. The Sumba Foundation supports hundreds of such villages in the area.

The Sumba Foundation has built wells and more than 200 water stations. Villages were built on hills to guard against attack, but getting water is difficult and can take a full day to fetch. New supplies enable women and children to go to school or work rather than trek all day for water.

It's estimated half of the children on Sumba are malnourished -- livestock and food are often traded rather than given to children. Of 70 children registered at this malnutrition center, 32 were malnourished. Supported by the foundation, the center provides eggs, bean seeds, milk and rice porridge.

The Sumba Foundation provides mosquito nets and operates five malaria clinics. This clinic receives around 100 patients a week. Since the clinics were established, malaria infection rates have been reduced by 85% around Nihiwatu.

The Sumba Foundation supports several schools on the island, providing materials, protein-rich meals for students and education programs for women.

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• Nihiwatu resort in Indonesia overlooks one of the best surf breaks in the world


• The hotel co-exists with the Sumba Foundation, which supports local communities


• The integration of the resort with the community has led to various eco- and sustainability awards

Nihiwatu, Sumba, Indonesia (CNN) -- "This has been voted one of the best left-hand breaks on the planet. But watch out for the reef if you get dumped -- try and shallow fall."

The surfing instructor knows who he's dealing with -- an uncoordinated, naturally ungifted sportsman on the wrong side of fit and very embarrassed at being Australian yet unable to surf.

And totally in awe of the view back to the beach and surrounding coastline while floating impressively ungainly between wave sets.

A scene like this, of the beach, gardens and hillside of the unassuming Nihiwatu resort on Indonesia's eastern island of Sumba island, makes a morning of shallow falling (read: tumbling like a drunken cat in a washing machine) totally palatable.

The beauty is immense and the urge to dole out "paradise"-riddled cliches is equally immense.

Elite Escapes: Nihiwatu, Indonesia

Yet, there's something more tranquil about this setting, a sense of harmony in the way the resort blends in effortlessly with its surroundings -- even with this surfer wannabe in the frame.

MORE: World's 50 best surf spots

Finding the 'perfect place'

The hotel is the remarkable result of a vision of colorful resort founder Claude Graves, who in 1984 with his wife, Petra, packed up their life in Africa to go in search of the perfect wave.

The ambition, he says, was to create a "perfect place" around that perfect experience.

It has so far proven a story well worth retelling.

"I wanted to create something totally experiential that didn't detract from the area," says Grave. "The best travel is around the best experiences."

After four years, and finding what has become known locally as The Wave, he and Petra ended up here in Nihiwatu on the southern coast of the relatively unknown Sumba, an island about an hour's flight east of Bali.

MORE: Wild Wakatobi: Indonesia's little-known dive paradise

Land time almost forgot

The couple camped on the beach, an idyllic 2.5-kilometer-long stretch of sand.

The beach is still difficult to access for anyone other than local villagers, and thus serves as something of a private beach for guests.

It's hard to imagine this same sand was the scene, barely six months before the Graves' arrival, of a massive battle between 2,000 local tribesmen.

Indeed, Sumba could be easily labeled an island that time almost forgot.

That clash was an illustration of the fiercely traditional, territorial and tribal nature of Sumbanese culture -- reinforced by the swords the village men strap to their sides to this day.

It's also, by Western standards, incredibly poor with little to no utilities access and infrastructure for many, if not most, villages.

This lack of standard resources posed a challenge for Graves and his plans.

MORE: World's 100 best beaches

Becoming Sumbanese

Through years of assimilation, negotiation, trust and countless pig sacrifices, Graves ingrained himself with the local community.

"We always said that if we found and developed a place, it had to be inclusive," says Graves, who confesses to not being a "hotel man."

With more than 300 Sumbanese workers, the hotel is the largest employer on the island.

"Tourism has the best potential economically in Sumba but if locals are not connected to it, it will be a big disaster.

"We couldn't imagine building a hotel here without including the locals so that all would benefit."

Claude began building what became the only resort on the island -- training and employing locals from various tribes and encouraging inter-tribal marriages, to assist in easing tensions.

The hotel soft opened in 2001 and had its first full year in 2005.

Keen to protect the highly regarded surf spot from the overuse and abuse displayed in places like Bali, Graves restricted the number of surfers allowed at the hotel at any one time.

He eventually acquired around 600 acres but developed only a small portion of that, impacting as little of the environment as he could.

MORE: 40 of Indonesia's best dishes

The Sumba Foundation

Quickly, the location became something of a surf icon, attracting to this day those chasing that perfect wave. A natural reef provides a clean, rolling break.

It also drew Sean Downs, a U.S. businessman who was so taken by the location, the people of Sumba and their needs, that he established the Sumba Foundation with Graves in 2001.

The foundation now impacts and supports around 120 square miles around the hotel and has directly reduced malaria infection rates by 85% in the 400-plus villages in that area.

There are now five health clinics as well as malnutrition programs in the area, created from some of the approximate $5 million donated to the foundation so far.

The foundation supports several schools and has built more than 60 water wells and around 250 water stations.

The latter has been key in helping to empower communities, says Rudi Weru, the on-the-ground manager and part of a team of around three dozen full-time Sumba Foundation staff.

"Now people don't have to spend their whole day traveling to fetch water. Instead, children for instance can go to school and learn," Weru says.

MORE: Indonesia's 'tree of life'

A young child is weighed at a malnutrion center. Almost half of 70 children registered at the center were found to be underweight.

The Sumba Foundation is independent financially from the hotel, but draws on donations from Nihiwatu guests, the wealthier of which account for a high percentage of donations and thus impact directly the tens of thousands of locals the foundation supports.

"More and more these days people want to have a purpose with traveling. It's not enough where people go and lie down on the beach and have a drink," says Dr Claus Boch, the foundation's health program director.

"You can't just come and enjoy the beauty of the place without giving back. So I think it really works extremely well between the hotel, the foundation and what we do."

Due to its association with the foundation and integration with the environment and local communities and customs, the hotel has won a raft of responsible and sustainable tourism awards.

Graves hopes his model is transferable elsewhere.

"Places like this that are leading the way will influence older hotels and sections of the industry. Clients will demand it. People will say I am not going to that hotel and instead go to where they feel their money is being well spent," Graves says.

The hotel is the largest employer on the island with around 300 full-time Subanese staff plus 150 daily workers -- making up more than 90% of its total workforce.

Dato Daku is among the original employees.

For him the experience at Nihiwatu -- from a daily worker to gardener to restaurant waiter -- is easily summed up.

"I want to die here," the father of three boys and three girls told CNN during a visit to Sumba last year.

"In Sumba it is difficult to find a job. It has helped a lot of local people find work.

"I can send my brothers and sisters and children to university or other parts of Indonesia now."

More than surfing

The hotel has 22 exceptional open-plan villas, designed to be low impact, drawing on Graves' philosophy and vision of integration by utilizing local designs, materials and construction techniques.

Experiences for Nihiwatu guests can include trips to nearby villages and clinics or programs the Sumba Foundation runs or supports.

"You can go into the villages, you can experience daily life, you can go to the markets and you can contribute if you want. And most do because they want to and it's not a tough sell. They really want to be a part of it and they really want to keep coming back to see the good work they've done," says James McBride, managing partner at Nihiwatu.

The Wave remains the most famous draw card, luring surfers from the world over, and limits itself to 10 surfers at the break per day.

Another 10 villas are due to be completed by March 2015 -- part of a plan to host those keen on more than just surfing.

Indeed, for those like this writer, not able to ride a board, there's a lot more to Nihiwatu than surfing.

The range of activities available includes a full range of spa options, waterfall hikes, biking, scuba diving and snorkeling, yoga, day trips and horseback riding.

The hotel has 22 villas with 10 more on the way.

A stand up paddleboard trip to nearby Wanukaku river is thoroughly recommended, but be warned of smiling local kids who dive bomb paddlers at every opportunity.

MORE: 19 top budget-busting vacation experiences

Graves recently stepped back from his role at the hotel, selling it to new owner Chris Burch, who has partnered with shareholder and established hotel manager, McBride.

Graves is in and out of Sumba and still focused on the Foundation now that there are a regular batch of guests that keep returning -- many of them keen to see the continued progress their support for the foundation has made.

"We've proven that if you get it right, guests will come back. Guests get involved and it is beneficial for all," Graves says.

And this guest just might even be able to surf next time around.

How to get there

All profits from Nihiwatu go to the Sumba Foundation. You can make donations or find out more about the foundation here.

Rates are all inclusive (food, drinks, activities) with some optional extras.

Accommodation starts at $495 per person per night for the rest of 2014, based on double occupancy and are exclusive of VAT and service charges.

From March 2015, full board rates (food and non-alcoholic drinks) start at $900 per room per night based on the size of the villa. Activities are at an additional cost.

There's a minimum stay of three or seven days, depending on the season (high season runs mid-June to mid-October).

Nihiwatu is closed January and February.

There are three flights daily to Sumba's Tambolaka airport on the west of the island (plus a weekly charter flight) and the hotel will organize transfers.

Flight connections are made via Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar.

Click here for more Nihiwatu villa and reservation/rate details .

MORE: 11 of the world's most unusual surf spots

CNN's Amanda Sealy and Scott Clotworthy contributed to this story.