megacities and microapartments update - 07.07.2014

Hong Kong's micro-apartment living
Families cram into 40-square-foot rooms

Published On: Jul 06 2014 08:51:02 PM EDT   Updated  11 m

This is the reality for more than 170,000 people in Hong Kong -- homes not much bigger than king-size beds.

video here:
http://www.news4jax.com/news/hong-kongs-microapartment-living/26819108

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How General Electric Designed 8 Appliances to Fit in a Micro-Kitchen
One module has induction cooktop, two ovens, sink, dishwasher, cooling drawers and $15,000 price tag
By ELLEN BYRON
June 10, 2014 6:51 p.m. ET

Anticipating greater demand for appliances that will fit in so-called micro-apartments, or living spaces of around 450 square feet, General Electric Co. GE -0.33%  designed an entire kitchen inside a 6-foot-long chest of drawers.

The micro-kitchen is hard working, with an induction cooktop, two ovens, a sink, a dishwasher and two cooling drawers, each able to function as a refrigerator or freezer—and all contained in a module no taller than a standard kitchen counter. A separate module contains a washer and dryer.

A boom in high-rise construction is boosting demand for compact kitchen appliances, as 20-somethings and empty-nester baby boomers move to cities, says Lou Lenzi, GE Appliances' director of industrial design. "That led us to know that we needed to change the design of our appliances." Builders like that the module needs just one water line. Draining a sink placed directly above a dishwasher was a challenge, though. A pump was required.

GE plans to share the design with an online community of consumers and designers later this month so they can suggest modifications and create their own designs. GE plans to start producing the final version by year-end with an expected price tag of $15,000.

video here:
http://online.wsj.com/articles/how-general-electric-designed-8-appliances-to-fit-in-a-micro-kitchen-1402440618

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The Next Big Thing In Urban Planning? Backyard Cottages

As the days of suburban sprawl give way to those of urban density in U.S. metros--"smart growth," most call it--providing sufficient housing remains a challenge. Decades of planning regulations and highway patterns support single-family homes built far outside a city center. Even in areas where big residential towers make sense, developing them takes a long time and costs a lot of money. Manhattan wasn't built in a day.

Planning scholar Jake Wegmann, who's in the process of moving from Berkeley to the University of Texas at Austin, believes there's another way: backyard cottages. Hear him out. Individual micro-units on single-family properties don't require much time or money to build. They don't need much space to sit on. They're affordable almost by definition and are well-suited to the modern family--from the recent college grad living at home to the grandparent who wants to age in place.



In other words, backyard cottages may not scream Manhattanization or even necessarily smart growth, but implemented over a wide swatch of a metro area they might achieve a similar end. Their potential seems even greater in places trying to reduce their reliance on cars and promote access to shops by walking or public transit. At the very least, Wegmann believes, cottages should be part of the broader conversation about the changing shape of American cities.

"The premise that single-family house neighborhoods are, or should be, frozen in amber is increasingly being questioned," he tells Co.Design.

One place ripe for such development in Wegmman's mind is the East Bay, an area just across the water from San Francisco that includes parts of Berkeley, Oakland, and El Cerrito. Housing demand is enormous in the Bay Area, but the city itself has become largely unaffordable. Still, the East Bay has strong transit access and clear walkable districts and enough density--at 11,700 people per square mile--to facilitate a more urbanized growth pattern.

more here:
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3032633/slicker-city/the-next-big-thing-in-urban-planning-backyard-cottages

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D.C.'s Fanciest Micro-Housing Project Is Meant for Millennials
The Patterson House, a historic mansion in the District of Columbia, is being converted into very small units for young one-percenters.

KRISTON CAPPS @kristoncapps Jul 3, 2014


Patterson House, 1927. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington)

The Patterson House may be one of the finest private structures in Washington, D.C. The mansion was designed in 1901 by Stanford White, a partner with McKim, Mead and White who also designed the Boston Public Library McKim Building, restored Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda at the University of Virginia, and erected the original Penn Station in Manhattan.

The white marble, glazed–terra cotta, Italianate neoclassical Patterson was built for the editor of the Chicago Tribune and served as the home of President Calvin Coolidge (while the White House was being restored in 1927). Stanford White would know from executive commissions: His firm renovated the White House's West Wing and built its East Wing.

Soon, the Patterson House is getting new tenants. The Washington Club, the longtime owners of the manse at 15 Dupont Circle NW—a very tony address—put it on the market last year for $26 million. The Sotheby's listing suggested that it could be for an "embassy, foundation or association headquarters, social club or, once again, as a personal residence."
Instead, it's going to the Millennials. Wealthy Millennials.

more here:
http://www.citylab.com/housing/2014/07/dcs-fanciest-micro-housing-project-is-meant-for-millennials/373942/

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Floating Ocean Greenhouses Bring Fresh Food Closer To Megacities
A hydroponics farm that uses salty water from the ocean could help growing coastal cities feed themselves.

While living in Tokyo, Philipp Hutfless, an industrial designer from Germany, saw how much food the Japanese import from abroad. The industrialized nation just doesn't have a lot of room for agriculture, neither in rural areas nor in cities.

His response was to develop Vereos, an idea for coastal cities with limited space for growing food. It's a floating greenhouse that recycles freshwater and gets power from built-in solar panels.



The greenhouse is 42 feet-square with shelves for growing vegetables inside. It has a reverse-osmosis plant onboard, which pushes saltwater at high pressure through a membrane to produce freshwater. Then there's a tank and pump, powered by electricity. The frame is aluminum and the covering is made of a hard-wearing plastic. Most importantly, the greenhouse uses hydroponics, which is less water-intensive than conventional growing (50% of the water is recycled) and less heavy, because there's no soil involved.



Hutfless works at the University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt, in the middle of Germany. His thesis project is an entry in this year's James Dyson Awards. Apart from Japan, Hutfless thinks Vereos could be useful in cities like Jakarta, Shanghai, Manila, Mumbai, and Lagos. "People can start to take care where their food comes from and how it is planted," Hutfless says. "It does not make sense to carry food over thousands of kilometers."

here:
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3032302/floating-ocean-greenhouses-bring-fresh-food-closer-to-megacities