THE year that just ended saw several property development and design trends coming to fore. Open office-space layouts, green roofs, green walls and earthquake- and typhoon-ready buildings are among the major architectural and design trends that took center stage in 2015.
However, arguably the biggest trend in property development all over the world in the past year was something that’s actually quite small. This huge global phenomenon is called the micro-condominium or micro-condo.
Micro-condominiums are small units that generally range from 23 square meters to 50 sq m big, or from 250 square feet to about 540 sq ft. If you find it hard to imagine how big that is, just think of two relatively small condo master bedrooms joined together to form one whole unit and you’ll get an idea of the amount of space involved.
The big deal
Although micro-condos have been a thing in Europe for a while now, the trend toward building micro-condos as a specific marketing initiative has aggressively spread everywhere else, like in North America and Asia, only in the past few years. Similarly, here in the Philippines, small condo units have been around for quite some time, although property developers had preferred to label them as “studio” units. It’s only recently that developers have started tagging these small units as micro-condos as a means to ride on the emerging global trend and specifically tap the label-conscious millennial market.
Studies show that property developers have started putting up micro-condo units to specifically cater to single or newly married millennials, who are more pragmatic in their approach to home-buying, oftentimes willingly giving up space for budgetary considerations.
The truth is that millennials are used to doing their thing, whether studying or doing office tasks, inside cramped Starbucks stores or similar cafés. For many of them, space is not that big deal as long as it is enough to get the job done. They are willing to make the trade for less personal space in favor of more communal areas—which explains the prevalence of open-space layouts and the advent of the coffee-shop-cum-work-area generation. Moreover, since micro-condos are relatively cheaper, buyers can opt to live in prime neighborhoods without having to spend so much. Individuals buying these small units often do so in order to live in high-end areas without paying high-end rates.
Big cities, like Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasig and Quezon City, where space is at a premium and real estate is very costly, have seen the rise of developments that include micro-condo units. For instance, Ayala Land’s Avida Land Corp. has several micro-condo developments in Metro Manila and the provinces. There’s also 8990 Housing Development Corp.’s Urban Deca Towers on Edsa, a development that specifically features affordable semi-furnished micro-condominium units geared for the middle-class, single and upwardly mobile professionals.
A tight squeeze
Despite its rising popularity, micro-condos do present a real challenge, and that is how to set them up to include all the basic necessities in life, like a bed, a dining table, the bathroom, a study and a living area. More often than not, expert help is needed in ensuring an efficient and functional interior design for these small units.
Interestingly, sometime last year, an exhibit by the graduating Interior Design class of the Philippine School of Interior Design (PSID), one of the premier interior-design schools in the country, showcased designs specifically for micro-condos. Called Studio 24, the exhibit opened amid raves from guests and visitors. It showcased 24 interior designs meant for micro-condominium units that are exactly 24 sq m big.
It was awe-inspiring to see how the young interior designers were able to fuse form and function into such small spaces and make the condo units appear bigger than they actually are.
“We wanted to show that our budding designers not only could adapt to the new norm of micro-condos, they could also use ingenious, imaginative and innovative design solutions that not only showcased their talent but also showed dwellers how to transform their space efficiently and beautifully,” shared Pojie Pambid, PSID dean and the main man behind the school’s creative showcase.
“There are lots of high-rise condominiums around the Metro. Spaces are apparently shrinking. As such, condo units should be affordable and to be affordable, construction costs should be reduced, which means space needs to be reduced, as well,” he explained.
Indeed, as the micro-condo trend is seen to continue for the next few years here and abroad, squeezing all the basic household necessities into cramped spaces remains the real challenge for interior designers and unit owners alike. The good news is that we have lots of talented and creative interior designers here in the country who can turn seemingly useless cramped spaces into livable areas of comfort and luxury.
1 comment
I agree. Micro is the pragmatic way to go.
https://twentysomethinglawyer.wordpress.com/2015/10/20/squeezing-into-micro-apartments-and-micro-condominiums-makes-sense-for-the-short-term/