The apartments in a new Manhattan building boast little balconies, tall ceilings, dishwashers and storage space. All in 360 square feet or less.

    It’s micro-living in the nation’s biggest city, and New Yorkers could be seeing more of it. Planning officials are proposing to end a limit on how small apartments can be, opening the door for more “micro-apartments” that advocates see as affordable adaptations to a growing population of single people. At Carmel Place, the Manhattan building that marks the city’s first experiment in decades with building super-small dwellings, the pitch is that little can be just enough.

    “An efficiently designed micro-unit,” says developer Tobias Oriwol, “is just a nice apartment.”

    Due to open early next year, Carmel Place features 55 apartments ranging from 265 to 360 square feet. By comparison, a typical one-car garage can be about 200 square feet.

    As an experimental project, Carmel Place got city land and a waiver from New York’s 400-square-foot minimum on new apartments, set in 1987. A proposed elimination of that minimum would allow smaller studios in buildings with a mix of apartment sizes, but entire micro-unit buildings would continue to need waivers.

    “For us, it was really important to demonstrate how a small space could be an enhancement to quality of life,” said Christopher Bledsoe of Stage 3 Properties, which designed the interiors and amenities at Carmel Place.

    Forty percent of the units have rents set by affordable-housing programs topping out at around US$1,500 a month, but market-rate ones rent for US$2,650 to US$3,150, roughly on par with many studios in the nearby Murray Hill neighborhood. About 20 people have applied and hundreds requested information for eight market-rate units so far, while over 60,000 have entered a lottery for the affordable ones.

    Mayor Bill de Blasio’s housing plan says Carmel Place and other projects show “developers can build compact units that are livable, safe, healthy” options for small households.

这是一栋位于曼哈顿的新建公寓楼，号称阳台小巧、垂直空间大，洗碗机、储藏室一应俱全。不过其中面积最大的公寓也只有360平方英尺（约合33平方米）。纽约这座全美最大的城市已悄然掀起“微居”风，并有愈演愈烈的趋势。市政官员建议不再限制最小面积，鼓励开发商兴建“微型公寓”，为越来越多的单身人士提供所谓平价住房。

地处曼哈顿的卡梅尔公寓算是纽约近几十年来的首座“超小型住宅”，打的就是“麻雀虽小、五脏俱全”的招牌。

开发商托拜厄斯· 奥里沃称：“只要室内设计充分利用空间，住客一样会感到舒适温馨。”卡梅尔公寓将于明年开始招租，共55间公寓，面积在265至360平方英尺之间（约合24至33平方米）。试想，一个普通的车库就可达200平方英尺（约合19平方米）。纽约市在1987年就明文规定：“新建公寓的面积不得小于400平方英尺（约合37平方米）”，而作为一个试运营项目，卡梅尔公寓不仅得到了政府的“破例”，还获批了城市用地。已有人提议全面放开户型面积限制，这样房产商在开发正常面积的公寓楼时便可纳入小型单间，不过兴建整栋楼都是超小户型仍需政府特批。负责卡梅尔公寓室内设计与设施维护的是三阶物业公司，其主管克里斯托弗· 布莱索表示：“我们工作的重心，就是证明小空间如何能提高生活品质。”

卡梅尔公寓中有四成公寓为平价房，月租不超过1500美元，余下的则以市场价出

租，月租在2650美元至3150美元之间，与周边默里山街区的单身公寓租金不相上下。截至目前，其中的8套市价单间，已收到了数百人的询价，20人已递交申请。而加入平价单间摇号申请的则有6万多人。纽约市长比

尔· 白思豪在住房规划中称，从卡梅尔公寓等住宅项目可以看出，开发商能为小型家庭“提供舒适、安全、宜居的紧凑型住房”。

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【经济实惠的】jīngjì shíhuì de affordable considered to be within one’s financial means

【豁免】huōmiǎn waiver a dispensation, as from a rule or penalty