As housing rental costs in Boston continue to soar, more young adults than ever are living with roommates. An emerging experimental housing trend may not solve the cost of living, but it may solve dealing with your roommates’ dirty dishes.

Micropolis Beacon Hill began as one developer’s passion project, to combine a compact living style inspired by densely populated Japanese cities with the appeal of Downtown Boston.

The 144 Bowdoin Street building is home to 20 micro-apartments. At around 250 square feet of living space, the apartments are indeed micro but utilize folding furniture like the Murphy Bed, which folds into the wall, to maximize efficient use of the space.

Panos Demeter, president of the Demeter Companies, which developed Micropolis, said that apartments are priced at a level that competes with the share of rent a tenant would be paying to split a two-bedroom apartment in the area, which puts them around $2,000 a month.

“If you go try and get a two-bedroom apartment in this area, it's pretty ridiculous. $3,500 bucks and above, if you're lucky, right? Each roommate is spending $1,750 to $2,000 for a room, and then you have better love your roommate,” Demeter said. “We felt that there was a market for someone to have, in a very, very well-located area, a small apartment that they could call their own for not really much more.”

The principle is simple. Renovated in 2016, Micropolis’ micro-apartments are sleek, modern and efficient. Containing modern appliances ranging from kitchenette to full kitchen and high ceilings offering overhead storage, the renovations focused on quality over quantity when it comes to space. Demeter said the building has nearly always been at full-capacity since renovating, but the idea was a bit of an initial gamble.

“At the time, it wasn't by any means a slam dunk,” Demeter said. “This particular building was an existing building that had 20 very small spaces that were older quality and older style apartments... We have four units on a floor, the flip side of four units is that you have to do four bathrooms, four kitchens. We grappled with that, saying, ‘Geez, should we just do the other thing? Make it traditional?’ But frankly, this became such a, I don't want to call a pet project, it was a big investment. But it was something I really believed in and I loved.”

While the traditional route would have been to get to knocking down walls, and most developers opt for turning apartments into condos, Demeter felt that more condos just further prices out the on-the-go demographic that could benefit from an apartment that is both modern and centrally located.

Demeter said location is everything when it comes to micro-apartments. The compact living arrangement appeals mostly to young professionals, post-graduation students in careers that have them moving Downtown for work or have them traveling with a desire to come home to the social opportunities offered Downtown.

“Cities are a backyard... if I did the same building in the outskirts of Boston, I don't think it would work.” Demeter said. “I think the point of this, at least for us, was to bring a nice product and have a lot of people who could really not be able to get an apartment on their own, live on their own in a nice location, but also with very efficient design.”