In recent years it has become increasingly common to use very small uni-spatial apartments as living or working spaces. This kind of abode-also called the studio apartment-constitutes a great challenge for architects, designers and decorators in order to adapt and maximize the limited space to the user's requirements. Studio Apartments provides the reader with an ample guided tour of different types of studio apartments, all of recent construction. Focusing on the visual impression of the apartments, the book is an ample source of ideas and inspiration that readers can easily put into practice. The book shows to what limits imagination and creativity can be used to make the most of a limited amount of space in terms of functionality, comfort and attractiveness. All of the architectural projects included are less than 550 sq. feet.

Provides a practical guide to interior decoration for small apartments, and offers tips on how to create efficient kitchens, appealing baths, adequate storage, and work and entertainment areas.

How do you maximize living space in increasingly small and expensive apartments that are being built in cities around the country? This stunningly illustrated book reveals how renowned architects -- including Stephen Alton, SA Architects, David Hotson Architects, and Gary Schoemaker Architects -- have solved that problem in their designs for small apartments and lofts in New York, San Fransisco, Boston, and other major US cities where residential square footage is at a premium. These design solutions focus on innovative, multifunctional uses within small spaces: a dining area by night, an office by day; living rooms that morph into party spaces or media rooms; and free-standing closets that conceal everything from kitchens, to beds, to work stations. The projects exhibit excellence in design, along with innovative use of materials and construction methods. Each case study includes interior and exterior photography by some of the finest architectural photographers working today, accompanied by design drawings that include site plans, details, and floor plans.

Joel Beath and Elizabeth Price explore this question drawing inspiration from a diverse collection of apartment designs, all smaller than 50m2/540ft2. Through the lens of five small-footprint design principles and drawing on architectural images and detailed floor plans, the authors examine how architects and designers are reimagining small space living. Full of inspiration we can each apply to our own spaces, this is a book that offers hope and inspiration for a future of our cities and their citizens in which sustainability and style, comfort and affordability can co-exist. Never Too Small proves living better doesn’t have to mean living larger.

A groundbreaking look at the transformation of SoHo. American cities entered a new phase when, beginning in the 1950s, artists and developers looked upon a decaying industrial zone in Lower Manhattan and saw, not blight, but opportunity: cheap rents, lax regulation, and wide open spaces. Thus, SoHo was born. From 1960 to 1980, residents transformed the industrial neighborhood into an artist district, creating the conditions under which it evolved into an upper-income, gentrified area. Introducing the idea—still potent in city planning today—that art could be harnessed to drive municipal prosperity, SoHo was the forerunner of gentrified districts in cities nationwide, spawning the notion of the creative class. In The Lofts of SoHo, Aaron Shkuda studies the transition of the district from industrial space to artists’ enclave to affluent residential area, focusing on the legacy of urban renewal in and around SoHo and the growth of artist-led redevelopment. Shkuda explores conflicts between residents and property owners and analyzes the city’s embrace of the once-illegal loft conversion as an urban development strategy. As Shkuda explains, artists eventually lost control of SoHo’s development, but over several decades they nonetheless forced scholars, policymakers, and the general public to take them seriously as critical actors in the twentieth-century American city.

Lofts, by definition, are former commercial spaces that have been converted for residential use and living/work environments. But lofts, by design, are vast silent expanses, soaring arches, stalwart steel girders, massive beams, and all the powerful drama of a curtain-time stage set. Lofts are a designer's dream. The importance of urban loft design for the architectural and design world is highlighted in this collection of the finest, most dramatic of these transformed spaces. Lofts: New Designs for Urban Living takes you on an intimate tour of residential lofts in the major cities of the world including New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, London, Toronto, Paris, and Tokyo. Projects include work from cutting-edge designers: Roto, Fred Fisher, Peter Anders, Neil Frankel, Briggs/Iacucci, Peter Tow, Kar Ho, Moneo/Brock, Belmont Freeman, Lotek, Brayton & Hughes and more. Complete with informative text, Lofts features full-color photographs, plans, and a valuable resource guide for anyone who has every dreamed of converting a commercial building into a residential loft.