Making Room

Making Room began when CHPC created a unique data model that revealed the diversity of household configurations in 21st-century America. CHPC found that single people living alone, and adults sharing their homes with other adults, comprise the majority of households in each New York City and the United States. Despite this, the housing stock is designed primarily to accommodate nuclear family households, largely due to regulatory requirements in zoning and building code that prevent different housing typologies from being created. 

1) How is the population grouping itself into households?
2) What are potential options for housing typologies that can support new household arrangements and lifestyles?
3) How can zoning, planning, subsidy, and building code controls change so that the development of new housing typologies is allowed and even encouraged?

Making Room made policy waves when the City launched a pilot program to test out the type of innovative design showcased at the exhibit in practice. The Bloomberg administration released a Request for Proposals for the adAPT pilot in 2011, inviting developer/architect teams to submit proposals for the development of a building of micro-studios for singles and small households on a piece of City-owned land. The winning submission, designed and developed by Mondanock and nArchitects, is now located on East 27th Street in Manhattan and known as Carmel Place.

Policymakers, government leaders, and the housing industry were beginning to rethink the types of housing that are needed in the market. In 2016, Making Room had another substantial impact on policy in the Zoning for Quality and Affordability text amendment. The minimum unit size requirement was removed from the New York City Zoning Resolution, signifying a substantial change in how the City regulates housing design and development.

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