NEW YORK: Bloomberg Unveils Contest To Make Apartments Even Smaller

Because people crammed two and three to a 400sf apartment are living too large, apparently.

City officials unveiled a competition Monday to develop a new breed of teensier, tinier “micro-units” even more cramped than what is generally built today. “We’re inviting the private sector to creatively answer this challenge: Come up with innovative models for buildings that offer apartments with new, smaller floor plans ... that will produce attractive apartments with competitively priced rents,” said Bloomberg, announcing the plan at the American Institute of Architects’ Center for Architecture.

The competition invites developers to bid for the right to build a new apartment building on a city-owned parking lot at 335 E. 27th St. in Kips Bay without the usual zoning restrictions on size and density. Under the guidelines, at least 75 percent of the units must be micro-units, which are expected to measure between 275 and 300 square-feet — significantly smaller than the the 400 square-foot minimum typically allowed under current zoning rules, city planning officials said.

I'm reminded of those full-apartment sample cubes at Ikea. And that place that Bruce Willis lived in The Fifth Element.