Product> Small Spaces and High Design in the Bath
Open Space Shower by Duravit
Designing for a smaller spaces shouldn’t translate to a reduction in quality finishes and fixtures. Following are a selection of bath fittings that serve as exceptional finds for tight rooms.
Open Space Shower
Duravit
Vienna-based Eoos has collaborated on a folding shower that’s perfect for a bathroom with limited square footage. Available in clear or mirrored glass, the four walled unit folds into a chrome frame that conveniently hides all fittings, including shower and fixtures, when not in operation. The bottom can be outfitted with Duravit’s shower tray or set onto a tiled floor with a drain.
New York City to Explore Building More Micro-Apartments
New York City’s Winning Design for adAPT NYC Competition (courtesy of NYC Mayor’s Office)
From coast to coast, micro-apartments are all the rage these days. Right on the heels of announcing the winning design team for its first micro-apartment competition, the New York Observer reported that the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Matthew Wambua told a crowd at the Citizens Housing Planning Council yesterday that the city is already scouting out two or three city-owned sites for its next micro-unit development. Once these locations are identified, the HPD said it will put out requests for proposals.
The winning team of the city’s adAPT NYC Competition consisted of nARCHITECTS, Monadnock Development, and Actors Fund Housing Development Corporation. This will not only be the city’s first foray into micro-apartment development, but it will also be one of the first projects in Manhattan to use modular construction.
America’s Oldest Existing Indoor Mall To Be Filled With Micro-Apartments
Micro Apartments. (Courtesy of Evan Granoff/Arcade Providence)
Nowadays it seems that everyone is jumping on the micro apartment bandwagon, and it only makes sense that a bite-size state like Rhode Island would pick up on this trend. Developer Evan Granoff is restoring the historic Providence Arcade (also known as Westminster Arcade), the oldest existing indoor mall in America dating to 1828, and converting it into a mixed-use complex with retail on the ground floor and micro apartments on the second and third levels. J. Michael Abbott of Northeast Collaborative Architects is leading the renovation of the Greek Revival-style Arcade.
Making Room: New York Micro-Apartments on Display Beginning January 23
Rendering of the “Making Room” exhibition. (Courtesy Resource Furniture)
Think you could live in just 325 square feet? While Manhattan is already famous for its cramped quarters, micro-apartments are poised to take space efficiency to the next level with Murphy beds lurking behind sofas and roll-away walls concealing closets. You’ll have a chance to test drive one of the tiny abodes at a new exhibition, Making Room: New Models for Housing New Yorkers, organized by the Museum of the City of New York and the Citizens Housing & Planning Council.
Proposals About New Microapartments Highlight Benefits and Drawbacks
Planning commissioner Amanda Burden, Mayor Bloomberg, and HPD Commissioner Wambua stand in a spatially accurate visualization of a possible Micro-Apartment layout for New York City’s Kips Bay competition. (Courtesy of NYC Mayor’s Office)
Take a minute to imagine what you would do if you had to cram your life into 270 square feet. In a typical ranch-style home, 270 could be a master bedroom, or a small living room, or a one-car garage. Now how about 220 square feet? It might make a shed or a bedroom. Now imagine this 15 by 18 foot or 15 by 15 foot space as your home.
Though it might sound more like another Ikea advertisement, two high-rent cities—New York and San Francisco—have been playing with the concept of permitting very small “micro-apartments” to alleviate high rents. By creating smaller housing, the idea goes, prospective renters will have a less expensive option and the city will be able to increase the density of residential units without increasing building size, always a contested point in neighborhood planning.
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