This site has touched on the Passive House standard in the past. When applied, the German-born energy efficiency standard allows a building, regardless of the weather outside, to stay temperate, comfortable and well-ventilated with no-or-low use of energy-intensive HVAC systems..
Read More »
An article in Curbed yesterday gave a construction update of My Micro NY, the celebrated winner of the adAPT NYC micro-apartment pilot program competition that will be ready this summer. Make no mistake, My Micro is a significant step in.
Read More »
One of the more interesting architectural tactics for increasing urban density and housing stock is using spaces that are often ignored or thought un-developable. This is the idea behind Michael Perry’s Cliff Swallow Apartment, the recent winner of the AIA.
Read More »
In most restaurants, it’s the appetizers, not the main courses, that feature the most innovative cuisine. Appetizers are not burdened with the responsibility of nourishing diners–they simply give them an interesting gastronomic pitstop before the main course; the former meal.
Read More »
Architect Michael Chen has one of the most impressive portfolios of small apartment projects in the United States, if not the world. “Although we [MCKA, Chen’s firm] work at a broad range of scales, we are fascinated by the design.
Read More »
Living in a crowded city often inspires–or forces–people to edit their lives. Real estate is expensive, so they usually live in smaller spaces, which in turn forces them to have less stuff. High density and public transit make it easy.
Read More »
As we’ve seen recently with Stage 3 in NYC, The Collective in London and the expansion of the micro-apartment movement in general, there’s a growing market for minimal, all-inclusive, affordable, community-centric housing. For the most part, these developments are aimed.
Read More »
While tiny houses, micro-apartments and even transforming furniture may seem like recent phenomenon, the truth is quite the contrary: it’s big homes, excess space and stuff that are the new thing. People have been living in dense areas, in tight quarters with.
Read More »
Several years ago I sublet an apartment deep in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The railroad style-apartment was roughly 500 sq ft and had one bedroom, a kitchen/dining area and a living room. It was oodles of space for me. A.
Read More »
People frequently ask us for more stories about families–particularly how does one fit big families into small homes? The home of Kip Longinotti-Buitoni is a great example of such a beast. Following a divorce in 2005, she and her four children.
Read More »