Making Room: New Models for Housing New Yorkers. This exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York is rightfully titled, as it addresses the issues New York is having when it comes to housing. The exhibit did a wonderful job demonstrating the changing demographics of New Yorkers and showcasing the possible solutions to address this evolving population.

As family dynamics are changing, apartments and homes no longer need to cater towards “nuclear” families. The traditional married couple with two children and a pet once dominated the housing market but singles are now rapidly becoming important players. In order to accommodate such a change, New York has had to create innovative design solutions.

The fully furnished micro-studio apartment was, perhaps, my favorite part of our museum visit. I was pleasantly surprised to see how economical the studio was, utilizing every inch of the 325-square-foot layout as efficiently as possible. From the foldout bed, to the ottoman that transformed into four decently sized tables, the show room truly served as a good example of where the future of NYC apartments is headed. Personally, I would not mind living in a studio like that.

I also greatly enjoyed seeing what other countries are doing/have done in an attempt to remedy their growing populations. Japan, for example, has established living spaces that share common backyards or play areas. Other countries such as Montreal have also successfully begun to reshape their building strategies so as to adapt to a rising single-population. New York, too, has taken a new approach and has started using modular building techniques.

Lastly, I was very happy to see that the city is promoting creative thinking by sponsoring competitions such as Bloomberg’s design contest. The only way our city will be able to adapt to changing times is by encouraging people to be experiment and test tradition.