Making Room: Discover New Models for Tiny NYC Apartments
Explore a New York exhibition of small-space design proposals that rethink current ideas about housing
Houzz Contributor. I am an architect and writer living in New York City. I have Bachelor of Architecture and Master in Urban Planning degrees, and over ten years experience in architectural practice, split between Chicago and NYC. Currently I'm focused on writing and online pursuits. My daily blog can be found at http://archidose.blogspot.com
Houzz Contributor. I am an architect and writer living in New York City.... More »
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After Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the winner of New York City's adAPT NYC competition at the Museum of the City of New York in late January, 2013, he toured the Making Room exhibition that opened the following day. The exhibition, organized by the museum with the Citizens Housing & Planning Council (CHPC), is subtitled New Models for Housing New Yorkers, and it explores this theme through design schemes that respond to CHPC research on the city's shifting demographics as well as through finalists' entries in the adAPT NYC competition, some precedents outside the city and an entire 325-square-foot apartment. This last piece received the most attention and gave the mayor some great photo ops, but as we'll see, it is just part of the story.
The exhibition and competition are linked through the housing council's findings that nontraditional families (singles and couples without kids) are on the rise, but there is not enough housing stock for them. The city states that there are 1.8 million residents who are singles and couples, but only 1 million studio and one-bedroom apartments in all five boroughs. The competition aims to realize a pilot project with microunits averaging around 300 square feet. The exhibition, on the other hand, is a mix of hypothetical projects and design solutions for living flexibly and efficiently within small spaces. Both are aimed at making New York City more affordable to singles and couples.
Here's a look inside the Making Room exhibition, which runs at the Museum of the City of New York until September 15, 2013.
The exhibition and competition are linked through the housing council's findings that nontraditional families (singles and couples without kids) are on the rise, but there is not enough housing stock for them. The city states that there are 1.8 million residents who are singles and couples, but only 1 million studio and one-bedroom apartments in all five boroughs. The competition aims to realize a pilot project with microunits averaging around 300 square feet. The exhibition, on the other hand, is a mix of hypothetical projects and design solutions for living flexibly and efficiently within small spaces. Both are aimed at making New York City more affordable to singles and couples.
Here's a look inside the Making Room exhibition, which runs at the Museum of the City of New York until September 15, 2013.
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| The exhibition is on the museum's top floor, in a gallery that is, not surprisingly, small. Architectural models and drawings occupy about half the space, with the rest devoted to a full-scale microapartment designed and furnished by Clei and Resource Furniture and with architecture by Amie Gross Architects. The floor plan is a stubby "L," with the living area and kitchen on the long side and the bathroom on the short side; the entrance is between the kitchen and bathroom. Entering the apartment feels much like entering an Ikea showroom, given the modern furnishings, but the emphasis is on flexibility — the living room also serves as a bedroom; the kitchen can be used as a dining room; wall storage becomes a home office. Here we see one wall of the living space, with a couch, open shelves and overhead storage behind doors. The shelf and white panel are key to the space's flexibility. |
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| The panel hides a Murphy bed (the Atoll 000), which folds down to turn the living room into a bedroom. What is unique about this design is the way it straddles the couch; just move the cushions to the side and the bed can be pulled down. Another nice design touch is the way the shelf remains horizontal, so in theory the objects on the shelf don't need to be moved every time the bed is moved up or down. |
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| Next to the Murphy bed is full-height storage for coats and other clothes. A light automatically comes on when the door is opened, and the clothes rack can be pulled out (note the mechanism on the side) for easier access. |
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Opposite the Murphy bed is a wall with storage, a moving panel with a flat-panel TV mounted to it and a bar behind the TV. A vertical support behind the TV hides the cables and allows it to move about 3 feet from side to side.
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| On the same wall as the moving TV is a storage unit with doors that hides a drop-down desk. As with the closet next to the bed, a light is built into the piece, above a shelf where notes can be hung with magnets. |
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| The kitchen is L-shaped and small, both in terms of size and appliances and fixtures — the sink is small, and the refrigerator is under the counter, for example. As much as possible is moved off the counter (such as the microwave) to maximize counter space, one area where even larger apartments in Manhattan tend to be lacking. Flexibility in the kitchen comes about through a dining table tucked under the counter. It rolls out and has a leaf that doubles its size, so it can seat two comfortably. Folding chairs are hung on the wall near the front door. |
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| Most of the exhibition outside of the full-scale microapartment is devoted to proposals for a variety of new housing types that are not allowed under current laws. For example, small units (less than 400 square feet) are not allowed in most parts of the city, but those might ideally serve the unrepresented demographic. Such is the focus of the adAPT NYC competition. A team led by Deborah Gans proposed extensions to Tudor-style houses in a neighborhood of Astoria, Queens (near where I live, coincidentally). Current laws do not allow the proposed extensions, which are envisioned as accessory units for the young or old. The colored roofs highlight the now-illegal areas that would add space to single-family houses. |
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| A model of one house shows how the accessory extensions would be executed in a similar language to the original. |
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| Architect Peter Gluck's team proposed microlofts of 232 square feet and 15-foot ceilings. Each unit has a sleeping loft and a lower area that can be used for living, working or both in a flexible design. The kitchen is small (more of a sink with burners than a full kitchen), but communal areas, such as laundry space and worktables, are provided. Five units are located on each floor within walk-up buildings that could be situated on standard infill lots. A variance would be required to allow windows overlooking narrow side yards as well as for such small units. |
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| Stan Allen and Rafi Segal proposed "Block/Tower" as an adaptive reuse of supposedly obsolete office buildings in midtown Manhattan. Their project sits at the opposite spectrum of the proposals by Gans and Gluck, who targeted small-scale areas outside of the city's commercial cores. |
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| Their model reveals the ubiquitous curtain-walled glass boxes of that part of Manhattan, yet with cuts in the base and up the building, to create "vertical neighborhoods." |
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| Another model and accompanying drawing more readily illustrate the idea of open, potentially green spaces snaking up buildings, a means of creating shared spaces within the vertical community. |
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| Next is a scheme proposed by a team led by Jonathan Kirschenfeld, an architect known for developing oddly shaped sites deemed unbuildable by developers for single-room-occupancy (SRO) residences. Kirschenfeld is an expert in small units, and he applies his experience to a different demographic on three lots along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. As the model makes clear, the larger scheme includes a greening of the boulevard to increase the desirability of living on the wide thoroughfare. |
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| The proposal includes a bunch of unit types, such as the studios that share a bathroom in the model at right. This sort of plan is not new (he has used it in SRO designs, and dormitories use the same layout), but Kirschenfeld is a strong critic of innovation in housing design, having spoken on occasions that most of the solutions have already been done. More: The first microunits are coming to NYC. Take a mini tour Explore the Houzz Small Homes section |
Ideabook published on Jan. 29, 2013.
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It'd be hard to have a dog, though. My hound dog would never be able to handle micro-unit living. A Cat would be the pet of choice. Or a goldfish.
Of course, not every1 can make it in a big city, so I can understand the 'small complex' thought process still out there in the non_gotham areas.
Now I live in the country and we are dependent for a car for everything--and we have no grocery etc so we have to "stock up" on food which then has to be stored; we cook for 7 or more people every day so we NEED to have large pots and pans and their storage---it goes on but you get my drift. This might not be for me right now but I can def see the need and the desire to be in NYC while it is still possible to do so with not that much money--I think the minimum you need to live in these "projects" is something on the order of $38000 with a $900 a month rent--this tops out at something like $78000 per year with a rent of something like $1300----well below the "average" rent for a studio in NYC now,. Then I look at places in other areas of the country where you can buy an entire decent house for under $50.000 with a tax that is less than my monthly grocery bill and I realize--I will be heading THERE not to NYC anytime soon!
Here's the link to see the bath we designed for the 325-square-foot micro-apartment featured at the mentioned Exhibition:
We would love to have feedback from you! Do you like it?
I could see these being corp apts, or as an alternative to commuting everyday, IE come in Monday go back the the country and family on Thurs, but full time living I would need the extra 150sqft that a trad studio delivers.
Had a 75lb Ridgeback on the 14th floor in a 450 sqft studio; she laid on top of the rad box in the sun all day. It was only for six months, and we got a lecture from the management for chasing tennis balls down the stairs on rainy days.
Forest from the trees peeps....
Thanks for this idea book!
Kudos to these designers for addressing this issue & for their creative solutions.
Small-space living is a serious commitment & requires a great deal of editing of one's possessions as well as thoughtful use of space. It may not be for everyone or even for a person's lifetime, but it's a welcome option.
If you look in more detail, you will see that vanity is in effect a drawer with a large capacity and the mirror is a medicine cabinet with lots of storage space.
Thank you again!
Small is one thing, but this seems claustrophobic. It takes my breath away, in a not so good way.