I am interested in New York City apartment spaces, specifically the extreme cases where individuals live in 60 square foot rooms, or families of 4 are packed into a 400 square foot one bedroom apartment. Next to the image of a 60 square foot room tenant are some statistics from the are some statistics pulled from the Housing NYC: Rents, Markets, and Trends 2009 book (left)
The solutions to apartment overcrowding and organization of stuff has created a vast market of plastic storage containers, cleverly designed furniture that double as storage, D-I-Y modular shelving systems, pressurized fake walls (no damage to apartments), public storage facilities and custom closet built-ins. The solutions can range from $30 to thousands, to a monthly bill.
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=128953596&m=128959697
ReplyDeleteNatalie, you will enjoy this NPR piece about the trend in Japan to live in "microhouses". I once drove across the US in a little pickup truck with a cap, in which I had made a comfortable bed and storage. It was really cozy back there, and I enjoyed sleeping in it, for some reason. I am of the belief that people can comfortably exist in a tiny amount of space, if everything is very carefully designed to do more than one thing. This is potentially a very fun topic. I once had a book called Tiny Houses, let me find it for you...couldn't find the book, but here are some nice images. http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/tiny_houses.html
steven