Optimized Dwelling Unit
Cities are one of humanity’s greatest inventions. They are a constant reminder of the capabilities of humans to organize and coexist within an expansive collective consciousness. They are detonators of culture and home to some of our greatest innovations. However, cities evolve and the increasing density causes the financial, social, and technological structures that govern them to shift in different directions. Benefiting some, and leaving a large sector of the population significantly burdened by the economic and emotional struggles brought by these changes, particularly when it comes to housing.
As a response to this seemingly perpetual housing crisis, we have created the Optimized Dwelling Unit, an adaptable code-compliant modular unit that uses highly efficient spatial design and occupancy parameters to deliver the dwelling unit of the cities of the future. The modular nature of our ODUs facilitates a streamlined production of housing units where they are needed most while providing space for flexibility and adaptability to the environmental, financial, social, and zoning particularities of any city.
In contrast to the traditional studio, which, in cities like New York are often barren, isolated, and depressingly arranged afterthoughts, our ODUs propose a more compact yet highly optimized form of living in the city. They are your urban bijou home, with the space to eat, work, rest, and relax. Ultimately, they provide the space for people to be themselves. The units are all equipped with a private bathroom, a small food prep area, plenty of closet space, a comfortable bed, and a living space with a sofa and storage surfaces for books, records, or any sort of objects that enrich the residents’ lives. All the ODUs are arranged around a communal module that contains even greater living space with a large area to work and entertain, including a fully equipped kitchen that is accessible to all residents of the ODUs.
In a world where the boundaries between living and working are blurring more and more, the dwelling spaces of the future need to be optimized in the direction of flexibility for new formats of life. It balances smaller private spaces with larger, more flexible communal spaces that better adapt to our current live/work conditions. At the same time, we need to bring back the elements and programs that make a living space a home, a place where people can reset, and feel they belong for any amount of time at a price the local residents can afford. The ODU does exactly this, it’s time for everyone to feel at home in the city.
