In July 2012, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) launched adAPT NYC, a pilot program to develop a new model of housing to adapt to the City’s changing demographics. HPD invited developers to submit proposals for the design, construction, and operation of a micro-unit building in Kips Bay, Manhattan. A micro-unit is an innovative apartment model, which includes a kitchen and bathroom, that is smaller than what is allowed under current regulations.
HPD has received 33 proposals, including submissions that suggest the use of modular design and some that include sustainable design features such as solar panels. The team consisting of Monadnock Development LLC, Actors Fund Housing Development Corporation and nARCHITECTS was selected as winner of the adAPT NYC competition. Construction on the pilot project will begin by the end of the year and residents are expected to move in by 2015.
Titled “My Micro NY”, the project will create 55 new micro-units, 40 percent of which will be reserved for low- and middle-income residents, Bloomberg said. The units will be between 250 and 370 square feet (23,22m² and 32,51m²). it will be the first multi-family building to utilized modular construction, as all components will be prefabricated in a facility at the Brooklyn Navy Yards.
If the pilot program is successful, New York could ultimately overturn a requirement established in 1987 that all new apartments be at least 400 square feet (37,16 m²).
“It has 9-foot-10 ceilings, a very large window, 9 feet tall, with a Juliet balcony which allows you to open the doors and turn your whole living room into a sort of balcony,” said Eric Bunge, Principal of nARCHITECTS. ”We’re thrilled at the chance of designing a housing prototype that will give New Yorkers in small spaces a sense of living in a larger social fabric.”
As a way to help New Yorkers “think small”, the Museum of the City of New York is opening an exhibit Wednesday called “Making Room: New Housing for New Yorkers.
New York City, which already has 8.2 million people, is projected to grow by about 600,000 people by 2030. A third of the city’s households consist of just one person, a percentage that climbs to 46 percent on the island of Manhattan.
via CBS New York
