The Unfolding Apartment

The sheer ingenuity of design that allows small spaces to become supportive, comfortable places to live has been noted before in this blog (see, “Multi-use Furniture Enabling Small Spaces”). Personifying the “designer of the future” who will produce such spaces is New York architect Michael Chen, principal of Michael K. Chen Architecture (MKCA). The innovative “pieces/parts” he’s designed for a dynamically accommodating microapartment have set the standard for design of small spaces of 400 square feet or less.

Chen started a few years ago with the 420 square foot “unfolding apartment.” Its flexible element is a large cabinet containing a Murphy bed, nightstand, closet and home office, each of which can be pulled out to transform a space from living room to office to bedroom, as needed. A flip-down panel offers multiple uses as a console table, a dry bar or a desk. The design, in Chen’s words, allows for an “exchange” of living situations during the day.

“Exchange” is a word he uses frequently—it is the underlying concept of all his work in designing microapartments.

Exchange is provided differently by a 390 square foot apartment in the city’s Gramercy Park neighborhood in which the transforming element is a sliding storage wall that can slide from one end of the apartment to the other. In this case of what he calls the 5:1 apartment the space layout itself is “exchanged,” with living areas changing in size to accommodate sleeping and dressing in the morning, doing office work during the day and watching TV at night. Power and cabling for all this is cleverly built in.

The moveable wall has built-in clothing storage, a queen-sized fold-down bed, an entertainment area, appurtenances for a home office, a dry bar and a library. A six-foot table can be pulled out for dinner parties (not a common event in microapartments!), but can also serve as a desk with a built-in computer and printer.

The supporting infrastructure for this is a mechanical marvel Chen has designed featuring a sliding track on top, a steel strip embedded in the floor for support and casters to allow movement. The wall’s movement is motorized.

This is where the Chen concepts can become somewhat challenging as adaptations for senior living. “Some strength is still required to move things,” he says, “and items such as beds are still standardized, with no customization available as yet to meet special needs.”

It is in senior design, Chen says, that further innovation is needed. “We’re considering developing the new hardware and other elements ourselves for more adaptability. Architecture in general shouldn’t expect to use standardized items in this area. It is time to move on.”

Applying such ingenuity to the design of senior housing appears to be only a matter of time.