Could you live in a space just 30 square metres? "People do in Japan," says the workman unveiling the cramped living quarters installed in the window of Selfridges department store on London's Oxford Street.

	Price If suitable sites can be found, Microflats should sell for �100,000 Size 30sq/m of floor space and 5sq/m of cupboard space Privacy King-size bed can be hidden behind a sliding door

Right on cue, a Japanese businessman detaches himself from the flow of commuters. He stares quizzically through the glass at what appears to be a plywood portaloo. He walks away shaking his head.

Welcome to Microlife.

In common with many urban centres, London has a chronic lack of affordable housing. With the majority of Londoners earning less than the city's average wage of �28,800, the first rung of the property ladder is beyond the grasp of many of those vital to the capital.

Window of opportunity

For instance, which teacher or nurse could afford the one bedroom flat advertised in an estate agent close to Selfridges? To live on the (unlucky-for-some) 13th floor of a tower block miles from the city centre, they wouldn't get any change from �125,000.

At �100,000, the Microflat - a double bed, kitchen, bathroom and lounge in one bite-sized domicile - could be their saviour and help remedy London's shortfall of nurses (4,000) and teachers (800).

"All back to mine - form an orderly line"

Far from being a cynical ploy by property developers to peddle shoeboxes to the desperate, the Microflat is the brainchild of two young architects who were themselves priced out of urban housing.

"We've been working for eight years," says Stuart Piercy, "and looked around our office of 18 people and saw that no one had been able to afford their own place."

Stuck in the middle

Mr Piercy says that while the city's clubs, bars and restaurants are geared up to satisfy the young professional market, the group's housing needs have been ignored.

"London housing has been divided into two camps. The very rich and the very poor. There's no shortage of luxury flats and the city has great social housing. But homes for those in the middle haven't been given much thought."

Would-be tenants may be means tested to qualify for a Microflat and re-sale will be controlled to prevent the homes becoming pieds-a-terre for the rich.

All I want is a room somewhere...near the shops

Mr Piercy and his co-designer, Richard Conner, are betting that young people will forego cat-swinging space so as to be within walking distance of work and a short stagger from cocktail bars.

"It would be hard to persuade someone moving from the country that they should live in such a small space, but once they'd been in London a while I'm sure they'd come round to the idea."

Helene Cacace, who will take up residence in Selfridges' window next week, says she would eagerly swap her Oxfordshire home for a real Microflat.

Alone to lounge

"I've just graduated and there's no hope of me getting a place in London," says the 24-year-old. "I shared smaller houses at college. I'm actually excited to have a lounge to myself for the first time."

Though real-life "Micronauts" won't live their compact lives under the scrutiny passing shoppers, Richard Connor's hunt for cheap land in prime locations has seen him approach supermarket chains in the hope of building Microflats on top of their stores.

Neighbours: Nosy

Even if the prospect of barely having to leave your house to get a pint of milk appeals, being surrounded by dozens of other bright, young Micronauts with not so much as a garden fence to separate you might not be such an inviting idea.

The architects, perhaps optimistically, hope blocks of Microflats will become vibrant, "self-sustaining communities".

"You can't create a community just by putting people in the same building," says graduate Liz Smith looking at the Selfridges Microflat.

Having lived in a �190-a-week "shoebox" in Bloomsbury, Denise Farnsworth says she'd quite happily move into a Microflat - even if she'd really prefer something bigger.

"It's all in the design. Designed in the right way, a small flat doesn't have to actually feel small."