The trip to the Museum of the City of New York was very interesting and allowed me to see many elements of the future of New York that I had not considered, notably the evolution of housing. The museum tour brought up many statistics and details about the city that were surprising yet intuitive and displayed some great models showing modern housing units. The museum mainly addressed the need for housing to correspond to the types of people using the housing. In my neighborhood in Brooklyn, a lot of the houses are very similar and are usually 3 floors with a family on each floor, and not flexible to other occupants. Because of the large amount of people living alone, new housing needs to reflect these living trends.
I was most surprised to find that the percentage of two unrelated adults living together, or roommates, in New York City was only 6%. I expected this number to be a lot higher since many people I know live with roommates but as the tour guide suggested, this number only takes into account the reported instances. There may be a larger percentage of people who do live together as roommates but do not report this. I was also unaware of the large number of people living alone; about 33%. It makes sense that almost a third of New York lives alone but growing up in Brooklyn, I mainly encountered people living with families in houses or apartments. I always thought most people lived by themselves in Manhattan, which is often the case, yet it was surprising that single households make up such a large proportion of the population when there are so many larger homes in Staten Island and Brooklyn.
The housing laws seem to be taken flippantly by many. Even the guide mentioned that she had lived in a place that didn’t meet housing law standards of space. The small living units being built currently that are displayed in the museum don’t even correspond to housing regulations about size but the guide said that occupants only have to sign a waiver to live in them. Even though it was very small, the living unit was rather amazing. Everything in the room was very functional and most items served a double purpose, such as a chair folding out to a ladder and a bed coming out of the wall.
The small models of various housing designs were also very interesting. I enjoyed how each architect used space in a very unique way. Many of the apartments in the buildings took up one floor and were the same size yet each floor was designed differently with a smart use of the limited space. The models depicted elevated half-floors, for example, with elevated parts of the floor holding the bedroom and using the space underneath for another room. They seemed efficient as well as comfortable and modern. The designs including a shared living space were also interesting because it allowed people to have their own rooms and bathrooms yet share areas for social activities.
As some people have already brought up, even with ideal housing units that optimize space, there is still the issue of parking and where to place cars. With housing that can hold many people, there also needs to be a garage area, perhaps underground to hold the many cars that people drive. I believe the tour guide mentioned at one point that people in Manhattan do not drive cars, but that is not always the case. There is always a proportion of the population who drives and they need convenient places to park.
