Swung down to the Making Room Exhibit in NYC this week and wanted to share some photos from this project put on by the Citizens Housing Planning Council. The Making Room initiative works on:

“cutting-edge housing and demographic research, new design proposals, and pragmatic policy recommendations that would expand housing options in New York City to meet the needs of our diverse and growing population.

The Making Room initiative is specifically focused on three new housing types for the New York City marketplace:

1. Small, efficient studios designed for single person households;

2. Legal shared housing options for unrelated adults;

3. Accessory units to make a single family home more flexible for extended families or additional renters.”

Many of the zoning and building codes in NYC and across the US were written under the premise that housing rules could enforce a lifestyle of traditional households and “the ideal American family.” Over time, it’s led to the development of a housing stock that leaves out a large portion of the population that would prefer to live in units or developments that have been made illegal. The mismatch of supply and demand primarily hurts housing consumers.

The plan has been to identify these specific issues, inform, and analyze what policies should change in order to allow for the development of a better housing stock.

By far, the most interesting thing in the exhibit is the micro-unit (it’s 325 square feet, but you’d be amazed by how big it actually feels, due to the clever design, and space-saving built-ins- here’s a link to better images of the unit). Parts of the showcase included information on other projects that are being planned or have been built all over the world. All in all, it was very interesting.

Ithaca-based Taitem Engineering is working on LEED, Commissioning and more in collaboration with nArchitects, the adAPT NYC Design Winners for the My Micro NY project [thanks Jan!].