2015April
"The Place Report: Top ten global trends redefining how we shop, live, work and play"
Micro-Living: Supplying an affordable yet distinctive micro-living product, which trades private space for public amenities and infrastructure
According to the United Nations 2014 report ‘World Urbanization Prospects’, by 2050, the global population expected to live in cities will rise to 6.33 billion, or 66 per cent of the
world’s total forecast population of 9.6 billion.
"5 reasons why micro-units will be huge in the future"
Half the world today lives in cities — and, according to the United Nations, nearly 70 percent of the world will live in cities by 2050. At a recent National Association of City Transportation Officials conference in San Francisco, former Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation Richard Davey even went as far as to label this the “Century of the City.” Data shows that younger generations are leading this urban migration.
...More"Why people are choosing to live in smaller spaces and are happier for it"
WHEN most people picture their dream home it’s hard to go past the six bedroom McMansion with seven bathrooms, home cinema and an acre of benchspace in the kitchen.
While it’s easy to get caught up in the cycle of wanting that bigger place, with the spare bedroom, bigger yard, study or airy dining area, an increasing number of people are waking up to the fact that instead of enjoying the extra space, having more room often means you just buy more stuff to fill it up.
And this clutter is not making people happier.
...More"“5 to 1″ Micro Apartment a Perfect 10"
Architect Michael Chen has one of the most impressive portfolios of small apartment projects in the United States, if not the world. “Although we [MCKA, Chen’s firm] work at a broad range of scales, we are fascinated by the design of small spaces because they demand inventiveness,” Chen wrote to us in an email. “We love taking on a complicated and difficult problem with the intent of creating solutions that are thoughtful, beautiful and deceptively simple.” His latest project, dubbed the “5 to 1 Apartment,” is a beautiful representation of his love of tranSForming the complex to simple. It is also, to my mind, his finest work to date.
...More"Micro Maven Patrick Kennedy Plans 395-Square-Foot Affordable Rentals for SoMa"
Patrick Kennedy of Panoramic Interests is best known for developing teensy but livable micro-units. However, his newest proposal in San Francisco isn’t technically for his signature micro-studios, but instead for very small one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms whose diminutive size is meant to make them affordable by design—and thus cheaper than the average SoMa apartment. Panoramic just submitted a Preliminary Project Assessment (PPA) to SF Planning for a new building at SoMa’s 333 12th Street.
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