Through The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s (HPD) adAPT NYC, Mayor Bloomberg just announced a competition asking for architects and designers to submit their proposals for 300-square-foot mini-apartments.

At this moment, the minimum size of an apartment required by law is at least 400 square feet. adAPT NYC’s goal is to “create additional choice within New York City’s housing market,” since the growth rates of the one- and two-person household populations currently exceed the growth rate of households with three or more people. The project, which will be located in Manhattan at a city-owned parking lot on E. 27th St. in Kips Bay, will contain about 80 micro units.

 image showing what the apartment design could look like. 

We will see proposals from different designers–perhaps they will be similar to those we’ve seen from cities like Hong-Kong or countries like Japan, with their micro-apartments and houses.

This small house above is only 259 sq.ft. (located in Japan)

The pre-submission conference will take place on July 31, 2012 at 2 pm at the American Institute of Architects’ Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place, New York, New York 10012.

Photos: Apartment Therapy, Archivenue, NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development