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Subscribe to RSSIn response to skyrocketing rents in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a challenge to the city's best architects: to design a space no bigger than 350 square feet into a comfortable and affordable micro-apartment. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
New Yorkers are famous for their teeny apartments, but a new trend in dwelling seeks to transform those tiny spaces into big assets. They're called "micro apartments," and they make a few hundred square feet feel like over a thousand.
Fold-away beds, moveable walls, and coffee tables that expand to seat 10 for dinner are just a few of the clever touches that transform these shoe boxes into veritable mini-mansions.
"The main idea is to get double, triple, quadruple use from every space," Graham Hill, founder of the sustainable living site TreeHugger.com and the design company Life Edited, told Fair Companies in a video interview.
With rising costs of living and a desire to limit one's environmental impact at top of mind, living simpler, and smaller, has taken off in cities around the world, especially ones known for their high rents. San Francisco recently passed an ordinance allowing for apartments to be built to 220 square feet. And "micro units" have also long been a Tokyo and Hong Kong mainstay.
For his part, Hill bought a 420-square-foot studio in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood and renovated it into a concept lab for tiny living, with boutique hotel style appointments, a home theater, and a pair of drop-down bunk beds for guests.
Feeling more like 1,000+ square feet, it boasts a kitchen with top-loading fridge, freezer and dishwasher. The stove top is three induction burners stacked in a drawer. To boil a pot of water for pasta, for example, you pull the burners out and plug them in, then stow them away after the linguine is served.
Hill's design was one of 34 submitted to New York Mayor Bloomberg's adAPT NYC contest, which tasked teams with coming up with plans for 250-370 square foot apartments designed for 1-2 person households.
The young professionals who constitute the city's lifeblood often find themselves priced out of New York City altogether or living in an outer-borough garret. One-third of the city's households comprise of just one individual, a number projected to rise to 46 percent in Manhattan, where one-bedrooms routinely rent for north of $2,700 a month.
New York City Mayor's Office
A rendering of the "micro unit" apartment design that won New York Mayor Bloomberg's adAPT NYC contest Tuesday.
The winning design, announced Tuesday, will form the basis for a new apartment complex built in Kip's Bay at East 27th and 1st Avenue in Manhattan with 55 of the micro units. The apartments will be built prefabricated, and then stacked on top of each other and connected - structure, plumbing, electrical, and all - like LEGOs.
New York City Mayor's Office
The design is split up into a "toolbox" and "canvas" area, with essential living amenities in the first area, and a customizable living room/bedroom slot in the second.
Called "My Micro NY," the apartment's bedroom converts into the primary living space, and the hip, 10-foot ceiling design includes a 16-foot-long overhead loft space, Juliette balconies, a full-depth closet, full-height pull-out pantry, fridge and range.
The complex will include a garden, porch with picnic tables, lounge, laundry room, storage, bike room, and a small gym. Rents will be about $2,000 a month. Eleven of the 55 units will be reserved for households with incomes no greater than 80 percent of the area median income.
Undoubtedly there will be a waiting list to become one of the first to live in the tiny, mod apartments. If you want to see what one looks like right away though, you can visit the Museum of New York City where a model micro-apartment is currently on display in the exhibit, "Making Room: New Models for Housing New Yorkers." You can walk around inside the unit and even try your hand at folding up and down the various pieces of hide-away furniture.
New York Mayor Bloomberg said Friday on WOR radio that he lived in an apartment for 10 years as small as the micro-units the city plans to build. His bed was a convertible couch, and he recalled it was a "pain" removing the pillows and making the bed, and not nearly as convenient as the sleek Murphy bed used in the design for the new units.
"New York’s ability to adapt with changing times is what made us the world’s greatest city – and it’s going to be what keeps us strong in the 21st Century," said Mayor Bloomberg in a press release.
The AP contributed to this report.
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This apartment is very nice but it is huge compared to the apartments that my son has lived in in Manhattan. Seriously -- one was 50 ft. with a shared bathroom. And seriously expensive. A 350 square foot apartment needs space for 3 people to be able to afford rent.
If city dwellers enjoy living in an apartment the size of a condom, fine with me. Nothing beats the outer suburbs.
Carla, are you sure your math is correct? I'm sitting in an 8 x 7 cubicle right now, which is 56 sq ft. A standard twin bed is 3.5 x 6.5 ft, which would be nearly half the size of the apartment your son supposedly had. I own a small home in NY myself, and my kitchen alone is 350 sq ft.
There is no such thing as a 50 sq foot apartment, unless you consider a walk in closet 5'x10' an apartment.
This article is way out of date, here in Chicago there are loads of studios that are 250-350 sq feet.
I would gladly live in a 330 sq ft apartment, but not for $2K/month!!!!!
I'd have no problems with it if it was just me (and either my pay was a lot more, or rent was a lot less!). I'm currently in an apartment that's about 700 sq ft, with hubby, two little boys, and a dog.
All they are trying to do is jack the price up, nothing is new in real estate. It is either being done or it is illegal to do.
Carla Pope,I think your son was renting a closet in somebody's apartment.There aren't any 50 sq.ft apartments in New York.
How is $2K for a micro apartment better than paying $2.7K for a one bedroom apartment? I would gladly pay the extra $700 to have more space in a separate bedroom. Shouldn't the rent on the micro apartment be more like $1K - $1.2K if a one bedroom with twice the space is $2.7K?
I take a helo into the city from the roof of my 6000 sq. ft. home, takes only 20 minutes.
No thanks - nothing to me could be worth living in a space that tiny. No job, no relationship - nothing!
I'll keep my almost 3800 square foot house on 1 acre in the country. I'll leave the Socialist/Communist living to those that don't care if the shower everyday or can actually crap in private.
I mean, why work to earn a decent salary to pay to live in a ridiculously expensive, dirty, filled to every square inch with people, when you can move to many areas where the cost of living is actually sustainable?
It's a jail cell with modernist touches. How quaint.
This "trend" has nothing to do with people liking the idea of living in an apartment about the size one might find in China. It's that with $4,000 a month for a 1 bedroom in Manhattan, people can't afford anything more. Salaries just aren't good enough to sustain it, unless someone moves outside the city limits and commutes as many do. The NJ turn pike are full of em during rush hour commutes, especially Friday afternoons when it can become a parking lot.
and that is why I live in Wisconsin. $800 a month, 3 bedroom 2 bath full basement 1 car garage , and a nice back yard. I will never understand why anyone would want to live in the city!
Roosterboy 2.11
You're right on that one. This is but a glimpse into the future of life in the collective.
Just part of the move of USA to a 3rd world country....soon everyone in the big cities willl be living in boxes. When you can smell your mate taking a crap from the other side of the room you know you have reached the optimum Obama mandated payrate and this is your new home in a box
What silly nonsense! If anything, it's republicans who want to eliminate the minimum wage and bring us down to a third world country.
It seems to me that some people live in their homes and some people live out of their homes and use them essentially as dormatories. If homes are this small, more people will spend more time in restaurants, libraries, movies, bars, and the like, and simply go home to sleep, change clothes, and maybe have coffee. Not everyone wants to live this way. I certainly don't. But then NY City is the last place I would ever want to live.
Thanks for making my point Janet
Pretty obvious who is smothering pay rates and it isn't the Democrats. No equal pay for women, no increase in the minimum wage, these are not Dem policies. The eight years under Bush saw no growth in the median wage. NONE!
If you can count or read you should see that corporate America has soared under Obama but we still live in a trickle down society and they control the pursestrings. After the collapse corporations learned they could run leaner than before and increase profits. This does however affect lower level workers dramatically. And with many states now being "Right to Work" complaining will only get you put out on the streets.
But wasn't this story about affordable housing in a big city? This makes perfect sense. This is hardly rough living. If you read the article these are all separate units so your comment makes zero sense regardless. Yet as we often find you found a supporter. LOL!
Voxrationis,
So when are you going to start blaming President Obama? it has gotten even worse over the last 4 years. Raising minimum wage is not going to make a difference. It will actually lower the number of people in the work force, not increase it. Allowing 12-20 million illegal aliens citizenship is not going to increase pay for any one. The policy of increasing costs on energy, more taxes and lowering the value of the dollar is not helping the poor either. Also how could President Bush do all of these things when President Obama cannot? President Bush is certainly not my hero by any stretch. You want to blame someone look in a mirror. We did this to ourselves. Everything is based on price not quality. A lot of things that we purchase now was never made in the United States in the first place. The only way to bring jogs here is to have a tax rate that makes business sense. All we have heard is how we have to punish the rich. That is not helping things.
Subnormal - your screen name says it all.
Welcome to an early view of the future.
2050 10 billion people and counting. Soon standing room only.
Aren't we the to most intelligent life form on this earth. LMAO
So what is next, a 200 square foot appartment?
Jail cell would be larger then a affordable apartment in New York
there are miles and miles of this country that have a low population density like alaska. if the problem persists, we will start moving into those areas. don't be overly dramatic lol america will never be a third world country.
Tony, Ter Bear's limerick below is more on topic than your post.
And so is the theme song for "Green Acres."
http://www.maggiore.net/greenacres/gatheme.asp
America will never be a third world country? Anyone who has lived 50 years or more and is an honest person can easily see that many places in America have already tilted in the 3rd world direction for quite some time now.
Have you seen how they live, in Tokyo?
Janet - nothing the Republicans can do will turn us into a third world country as fast as your precious Obama spending us into the ground. Who do you think is going to pay your monthly welfare checks once the people who are actually working are completely tapped out?
Ah yes, the old argument that everyone in the world can fit into such-and-such area. Where do you think all out food gets grown? What provides the water we drink? All the resources for medicines and everything we use in our daily lives? All our storage for waste? There is more to maintaining your life than the 2x2 foot square you presently occupy.
And they have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Maybe all that communal living gets to be a drag. Everyone needs breathing room.
It's all part of the United Nations Agenda 21.....look it up
Move more people to urban centers, everyone uses mass transit...They hate even the idea of private vehicles...and people that own guns...The UN Small Arms Treaty will take care of that...
Other than that....Small apartments for singles, young couples and Seniors is a Great Idea..My house is just 1,100 sq.ft.....and I could certainly live in smaller, but this one is paid for and buying smaller would probably cost me more !!!
Liberals don't believe in the trickle down, though...They don't see how rich guys spending money creates jobs for others who also spend money and create jobs for even more people. Nor do the majority understand the economics of capitalism...that companies will either fail, or find a balance between fair wages and consumer prices if left to their own instead of trusting the government to bail them out at tax payer's expense...by the looks of it, this growing liberal attitude is further assisting corporate greed instead of relieving it.
What does excessive spending have to do with Obama? He has both reduced the deficit and if not slowed the rate of government expenditure, at least slowed the rate that it is expanding at.
You aren't very smart, are you? I am constantly amazed at the inability of Republicans to realize that liberals are the ones supporting the country.
I am not quite sure what criteria you are using for "gotten worse", but a continually shrinking deficit, continually dropping unemployment and continually rising stock market isn't "gotten worse" in most venues.
...the greedy real estate brokers and scum sucking politicians who only cater to the rich foreign tourists in NYC are responsible for regular working Americans being forced to live like prisoners in this city......and when will they move all the welfare queens out of the large apartments they occupy for peanuts in prime NYC neighborhoods while taxpaying Americans go begging.....
Nobody is forced to do anything.
Even you aren't forced to post the garbage that you post!
Hmmm and they make fun of southern people living in double wides!
Jim,I had a brand new double wide in California in the 80's.I loved it.It had a lot of storage,was in a gated park and we had a small yard with a 2 car garage.It also cost a fourth if what my current house does.California has allowed the on site builders to hold them hostage.It is downright impossible to have a mobile home in California unless it is in a mobile home park or in a rural area.
I lived in 712 square feet for 18 years, and it was not pleasant. Into that space, I had to cram every single thing required to keep my personal and professional life moving forward: business-related items, personal clothing (including shoes, winter coats, daily clothing that hung and underwear and other clothing that didn't, hats, etc.), jewelry, handbags, etc. When I was 25 or 30 years old and earned much less money, perhaps I'd have had less stuff. At 60, a lifetime -- even pared down -- is difficult to cram into a small area. All this space-saving furniture is expensive, besides, always assuming you can find exactly what you need. I stayed in that apt long enough to accomplish financial milestones that allowed me to buy a townhouse 6 months ago. Feels like I live in Taj West now!
My parents raised us in a 3 bedroom,one bathroom 800 sq ft home in the 50's.People don't need all that stuff and doing the cleaning took 1 1/2 hours max.More time to do other things and less money for utilities.I clean homes(the smallest is 1600 sq ft and the largest 3200 sq ft.)and also businesses.I wouldn't want these peoples utility bills nor the cost of the upkeep on a large home.They are slaves to their homes.
Wow...if that's for one person, you must've had a lot of stuff if you couldn't fit it into 700 sq ft. Try a family of 7 in just under 900....that's including the shed we kept our bikes and lawn mower in.
The other thing to think about, is how do your raise a child in this space? how do you entertain anyone? it was mentioned that people would go out to eat more. Well if you can barely afford to pay rent how do you pay to go out to eat? Also like hurricane Sandy, how can you prepare to help yourself? Also with power outages becoming more common, how do you get to the tenth floor each day? Where do you put all of these people when they are homeless?
These aren't being marketed as family housing, subnormal. They are for young, upwardly mobile professionals who want to live in urban areas.
Pedestrian-in-SF do you believe that zoning codes are going to keep families from trying to live in them? Some people do not care to make a good environment which is why a few families can already be found in sub par housing, even when times are good.
It would be nice if each floor had a "community" kitchen if you needed more space to cook, like if you do all your cooking for that week or if you were entertaining. You could bring your own rolling cart to put your cooked food on when you were finished and roll it back to your apt. I like to make a big batch of soup, pour it into glass jars, and store them in the fridge and/or freezer.
You could bring your own ingredients and cookware that you kept stored in your own apt, cook the food in the community kitchen, and take it back to your apartment. They could have a coin-operated dishwasher there if you wanted to wash your cookware there.
Who is doing the clean up?People steal other people's laundry in apartment laundry rooms.Can you imagine the expense of replacing your dishes,flatware and pots and pans? Your idea sounds great for a hippie co-op.
just a cleaning lady - try actually reading what Intelligent & Independent wrote. He/she specified that one would store cookware in one's own apartment. Duh!
100Reddles, who says square footage equates a healthy family environment? Abe Lincoln grew up in a 1 room log cabin shared with his entire family, and many around the world don't have McMansions and still manage to raise their children.
just a cleaning lady, perhaps you should google co-ops and get an education. Many are springing up all around the country and are considered quite successful. They're not just for "hippies."
How true.... I was beginning to feel claustrophobic in my 919 sq. ft one-bedroom apt that I moved into when I retired. It's in a beautiful area and is so well designed. It has everything I need.
After reading about living in 300 sq. ft. apts in NYC, I feel like I live in a mansion - ha! It's all about perspective, right?
We Americans are SO spoiled. Can you imagine what someone living in a cardboard box would feel about living in a 300 sq. ft. apt that is so cleverly designed? The huge mansions that some of the top 2% are living in are just obscene. Who needs that kind of space????
Intelligent...I agree with you about us being spoiled. The average home size in America is 2,438 sq ft with an average of 3 people living in those homes. Australia is slightly behind us in home size, but everywhere else, average house size is less than half ours and it goes down from there. Though I sometimes feel part of the blame lies with contractors. Where I live, it's hard to find a new home less than 2,000 sq ft. If you want anything smaller, best be looking for a condo or an older home.
Just so all of you know, real estate is a supply-and-demand kind of business. NYC cannot expand any more than it already has, so space is at a premium. If you don't want to live in a 300 sq. ft. cubbyhole, then don't live in Manhattan. My son works in Manhattan but lives in Brooklyn where he has a fairly spacious and quite affordable apartment. We in the US are spoiled. Nowhere else in the world can you own a home with 2000 sq. feet unless you are prepared to pay millions for it. The bottom line is, be thankful for what you have, and living in a 300-ft apartment is a matter of choice.
...even if you made an annual gross salary of $60,000, you would have trouble existing in NYC paying $2000 a month just to rent a room.....
That may be true in the big cities, but it is certainly NOT TRUE in the majority of America.
nycguy - so move out of new york? you could have acres and acres if you moved to south dakota or something. you act like the government is oppressing you by forcing you to stay. would you like some cheese for your whine?
...yes, I heard there were plenty of jobs in South Dakota.....but I don't rope cattle and I can't afford a horse.....dip@!$%#.....
Deb P. Real Estate is not a supply and Demand business it is more of an investment business, like I invest my whole life in it.
Thanks for the advice Deb P. But in case you do not know, there used to be a reason why America was different from the rest of the world. Even in the big cities.
Deb P. - you really don't think that people can't figure out that housing costs more when space to build housing is limited and a lot of people want to live in that limited space?
No it's not. Zoning laws, rent caps, subsidized housing make real estate far from supply-demand business.
Educated yourself posting next time.
Just remember, GREED pricing put you in a cat box. Enjoy suckers!
I like the apartment the Will Smith character had, in "Men in Black." It looked like the bathroom was the same size as the bedroom. I don't know where the kitchen was, but the bedroom/television viewing area looked comfortable.
There are tiny houses in my town, too, 700 square feet and less. They are in a high income area, they are older houses built first part of last century, hardly any yard space, and the owners/renters spend their lives outside of them, going home to sleep and change clothes and maybe chill out.
I'm one of those people who would prefer the KITCHEN be at least the size of the bedroom...I've been extremely disappointed by the apartments I've looked at because the kitchens have so little counter space, I'm hoping someone comes up with a blender/mixer/toaster/microwave/coffee pot/waffle iron combo machine.
I sure wish Bloomberg would try living in one of his great ideas for the rest of us. This guy is truly out of touch with reality. I wonder how much his several homes' footprints amount to?
He's too busy passing rather dictatorial measures such as the large size soda ban, even though just about everyone knows those cups are half full of ice... As to actually considering what people have to live with, he'd probably think that, beneath him...
Nuadormrac....is the large size soda ban really oppressing you that much? Is it keeping you from sleeping? Is it something that you are working through with your therapist??? Ok, ok, we'll allow you to buy a big soda, ok little girl?
These appartments would be the perfect place to have as a crash pad after a night out in the city. You could then make the trip home to the suburbs the after a good night of sleep.
that's what im thinking! you make more money in big cities anyway. AND with sites like airbnb and stuff, you could totally rent out the room when you aren't there and still turn a profit. apartments like these are a win/win for those with the creativity to work it right.
I think it would be cheaper to just get a hotel room than pay the mortgage, taxes and insurance on an apartment that you intended to use as a "crah pad", even if you could rent it out on such a piecemeal basis. And one less weight around your neck.
I am reminded of the movie "The Apartment."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053604/?ref_=sr_2
and.........there once was a guy from Boston, who drove around in his Austin. He had room for his ass and a gallon of gas and his balls hung so low that he lost them!
Rent approx $2000/mo. Are they insane.
It's New York, of course they're insane.
PT Barnum had a word for this "there's a sucker born every day". And there's always people ready and able to exploit em as well...
It's the economy of the city...average wages in the NYC area are 2 1/2 times higher than the national average, so you can expect housing to cost more as well. I don't personally know any New Yorkers who can confirm, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, average WEEKLY wages in the NYC area are above $2000...
Wages in NYC may be 2 1/2 times the national average but if that nasty little apartment goes for $2k a month, it's obvious that rents there (for a comparable residence) are much more than 2 1/2 times the national average. In my city, I could pay one week's wages and get an apartment four times that size.
All you who turn this into a political discussion are idiots. This is a cultural thing. Some people just want/need to live in the inner city. It's their issue if that's their choice. It's got nothing to do with Reps/Dems. It's supply and demand. Me, I'm too claustrophobic. Give me the country and lots of space.
You're the idiot. Real estate in NY is not supply and demand.
Think before you post.
Do you really believe they'd chose to get one of these match boxes, if they could get a more normal sized apartment (for the US, not China) right inside NYC itself (aka if rent in general was lower there all around). They're making hard choices, to yes be in the city; but not necessarily choices based on what they really would want if money wasn't an issue...
maybe not where you come from, but....real estate in NYC has always been political...
This is nothing more than a plan to reap maximum profits from minimum investment.
And that's a good thing.
However, they'll probably fail at that in this case.
Not for the consumer, it is not always... Just think of the out sourcing of tech support also. There might be less investment in hiering people form India who can barely speak English but will work for less; but it does nothing for the consumer who simnply can't communicate with support due to a language barrier, and grows ever more frustrated...
Same thing applies if you know English but not Spanish, well being an American and all; and yet the guy at McDonalds or the gas station can't comprehend so keeps mucking up your order, because of yet again a language barrier with the (possibly illegal alien) they figured they could maximize profits and minimize costs, hiering...
Al Gore and John Edwards have shown us the way to minimize our footprint. Maintain multiple mansions that consume 20 times as much energy as the average home, but buy indulgences from Al's carbon offset company.
Do you really expect rich folks to live in a box? Would you? I wouldn't, even if I were an advocate of using less energy. You do it and then I might consider being impressed (even though I won't).
I wouldn't expect rich "progressives" to live in tiny boxes (even though they're always trying to convince the rest of us that that's what we really want for ourselves), any more than I would expect them to do without armed guards for their kids (while they do their best to force gun control on the rest of us). The policies they advocate for others were never intended to apply to them personally.
I'm all for living in small spaces, but if it doesn't come with a big yard it's pretty worthless to me. So yeah, I'm not moving to the city anytime soon.
I agree. My place is about 2000 sq. ft. on 15 acres. The perfect size for a single, middle-aged guy like me, in my opinion. :D
Bloomberg, shrunk the fountain soda, now shrinking the apartment. Nice.
If you want to live in New York, or any large city, for that matter, this is the kind of crap you have to put up with. Crowded and expensive. You can blame the minimum wage all you want, but even if it was $20/hour, you'd still need a roommate to afford rent. People pay these premiums for the "privilege" of living in a major city.
I live in essentially the middle of nowhere, my job is in the middle of nowhere, and I like it that way. It's not crowded, traffic is practically non-existent, and the air is clean.
Me too I work in the city but live rural. I drive 32 miles to work but pay 650/ month lease on a 4 bedroom 2 bath farm house on 4 acres. It is my little Paradise..I moved here from Chicago and will never do big city living again..
If I start missing these lil apartments I stroll thru Ikea.. :)
Pay more, get less. The American way!
These are perfect low-maintenance apartments for people in big cities going to college or grad school! I would have been more excited about going to NYU if i knew i wasnt gonna go broke trying to find a place to live.
I don't think most college or grad students are going to afford a 2K a month apartment.
kyle diaz - if you're going to nyu on a 40k a year tuition i bet an extra 2k aint an issue.
Move somewhere that you don't have to live like a rat in a maze, or a bee in a hive.
Or an ant in a hill?
"New York’s ability to adapt with changing times is what made us the world’s greatest city"... sound like the delusional ranting of someone who's been confined to a 300 square foot
prison cellapartment.yup.
Dubai is the worlds greatest city now. They also have the tallest building in the world.
I would have expected the rent to be lower than $2k, but to live in a well-planned new apt. would certainly appeal to many now living in old rat traps and paying more in rent. Also, I think these would appeal to young professionals who do spend a lot of time out in restaurants, bars, etc. and empty nesters who have scaled back their lifestyle. The in-betweeners who are raising families are probably better off outside of Manhattan anyway.