January 13, 2016

See NYC'S First Micro-Apartment Building

Things are getting snug in New York City, so much so that the city recently decreased the minimum residential space requirements to under 400 square feet.

One of the first construction projects to take advantage of this is Carmel Place, an apartment complex in NYC made up of 55 micro units. The spaces range in size from 260 to 350 square feet with rent starting at $2,650 and going up to $3,000 a month. As small and expensive as the apartments are, they're already sold out!

Surprisingly, 14 of these units actually qualify as "affordable housing" where renters can live in a unit for $950 a month. Applicants petition New York City every year to move into more affordable housing. There's about 4,300 applicants per unit at Carmel Place so competition's tight!

Interestingly, the building is something of a modular tower. Each apartment was constructed individually in a naval yard in Brooklyn. From there, they were trucked into Manhattan and assembled by stacking each apartment onto each other.

The space is made workable by dual-function and collapsible furniture. The unit uses Murphy beds to help save space. The dining set comes with collapsible chairs that can be stored in the hallway closet when not in use.

For some insight into how the space can be used, check out this video to how exactly how it works: