Honey, I Shrunk The Apartment!
Due to changing ways of life, cities have to reconsider their housing policies. During the family-driven 1950s, a high demand for two-to-four-bedroom units existed, but today about half of the New Yorkers are single and therefore differing housing needs have to be met. Micro-apartments could be a solution.
To help out the increasing number of singles living in the city lacking privacy due to shared apartments My Micro NY came up with the idea of building modular studios between 24 and 34 square meters ‘big’. The prefabricated units were designed by nArchitects and will be stacked into place this spring.
The units are especially designed to meet the housing needs of singles and will be furnished with kitchenettes, wheelchair-accessible bathrooms, high ceilings and big windows. Storage units and common spaces throughout the building try to make living in such micro-apartments more attractive and convenient.
The idea of modular housing is nothing new: in cities with high densities like Tokyo modular housing was already set up in the 1970s with the Nakagin Capsule Tower (also featured on our blog). This example from New York can be seen as a modern interpretation of the Japanese metabolism architecture the Nakagin Capsule Tower stands for.
