by ROBIN FINN, The New York Times, February 28, 2013
Looking West
Source: nArchitecte.com
Despite less-than-rhapsodic memories of miniaturized apartment living, the married architects Mimi Hoang and Eric Bunge designed the winner of the adAPT micro-unit competition sponsored by the New York City Housing and Preservation Department and endorsed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
Their entry, “My Micro NY,” features 55 prefabricated apartments, of 360 square feet or less, stacked in a 10-story building on East 27th Street in Kips Bay. The building does not stint on amenities, providing a common terrace, a laundry room and a bike room.
The couple’s firm, nArchitects, is based in a Dumbo loft, and they live in a Carroll Gardens town house, but for the competition they drew on their cohabitation in a tenement in Lower Manhattan.
The mission was to seize an opportunity to render a tight space habitable and, if possible, aesthetically pleasing.
“At first blush we weren’t so sure about entering,” Mr. Bunge said, “because we felt people should have more space than this. But that was before we understood that the alternatives out there are far worse. There are people living together in substandard apartments all over the city who would prefer to live alone but can’t afford to. So we said, ‘Wait a minute, let’s make a humane small space where people would want to live.’”
“This is a pilot program, and it doesn’t mean micro-units are going to be sprouting everywhere,” Ms. Hoang said. “But it’s incredibly exciting to be part of a progressive new residential prototype for New York that has social implications and is intended to help solve a social problem.
adAPT NYC Competition, winner announcement
Source: nArchitecte.com
Source: nArchitecte.com
Rendering of a typical micro-unit
Image: ledaean.com
Source: nArchitecte.com
Rendering of a typical micro-unit
Image: ledaean.com
Source: nArchitecte.com
Source: nArchitecte.com