Why Smaller Apartments Actually Provide More

I guess the best way to start this is to describe my current, uncomfortable apartment. It's 12' wide and 40' deep, with one entry and one window (both at the front of the apartment). Upon entering is a shared kitchen and living space, then a small hallway with a bath, and finally the bedroom in the back with no windows. While measuring 480 sq ft, I always laughed about the size of my small apartment.

Then I visited Europe. My housing in Copenhagen was inside of a shared housing building called a Kollegium - an efficiency sized at a mere 10' x 20'. That's less than 1/2 the size of my Conshohocken apartment, yet the arrangement didn't make me feel any more uncomfortable or claustrophobic. The reason? - A smarter use of space. It sounds simple when you think about it, but I was amazed at the ability to fit both my kitchen and bathroom into around 80 sq ft. With a narrow small kitchen and a bath where the shower was directly worked into the floor design, the space was able to be recycled for the use of the occupant. Abundant storage allowed me to keep my items organized and out of sight. A bed, desk, TV, and sitting chair sat in the rest of the room. The far wall was almost completely comprised of glass and a large window that acted like a door. The abundance of light and ventilation also added the the feeling of space.

Why does this matter? I instantly thought back to my position paper on sustainability that I wrote last fall where I tried to design and estimate the cost of a one-bedroom home. The goal was to provide basic housing, not extra space. At the time I thought I was designing a very small space, but after this experience I started re-thinking the scale. I'm not an interior designer but I thought I had given modest space to occupants that would be living here. Looking back, I may have been thinking too large, too American.

This has filled my thoughts for the past few days - Can we bring smaller designs here and why haven't they been successful here? Can these smaller kitchens and dwellings enhance neighborhood interactions by encouraging  you to go out to eat and out to meet your friends?

I love the layout of the Manchester apartments by Abito - Small, compact, beautiful. We are doing the same thing here, take a look at Philly's own ThinFlats. What jumps out immediately is our demand for space; more rooms, larger kitchens and baths, larger bedrooms, etc. It makes sense for a developer to add bedrooms when space isn't an issue, it's an very inexpensive way to increase the price of a home. But when space and land is at a premium, it's more profitable to make smaller units to increase the amount of units. Are builders and developers here afraid to build smaller? Or are they, and most likely, just delivering what Americans want. I know there's a lot more to this discussion, if you have anything to say let me hear it.