"Domestic Transformer" 344 sq. ft. apartment changes into 24 different configurations

Videos about this apartment keep popping up on architecture and green building websites. And it has over 6 million views on YouTube. Obviously people are interested in configurable small spaces.



The apartment was designed by the architect Gary Chang for his own use in crowded and expensive Hong Kong. He has lived in the same apartment for over 30 years (since he was 14). This apartment received wide media coverage including this article about it in the New York Times.

For more information, here is a link to an email interview with Gary which he gave prior to giving a presentation in New York about "Blurring the Boundaries."

I suspect this is the inspiration behind Treehugger founder Graham Hill's LifeEdited competition to have designers compete to design his 420 square foot apartment in New York City. See the designs from this competition here.

Imagine the potential market demand for a small prefab home designed with similar configurability and for high-performance to minimize the need to be on the grid.

30 stories in 15 days. In China, Watch and Think.

This video is generating a lot of attention on the web. More coverage here and here.

This story continues to get more interesting, now this is floating around the web, "200 story Prefab for 100,000 People Can Be Built in 2 Months."

Michelle Kaufmann shuts down - Lessons Learned

With all the media attention and ongoing discussion regarding MKD shifting markets, the time is right for a longer discussion on what went wrong beyond attributing the problems exclusively to the state of the larger housing market.

a much longer post is in the works.