Opening Reception: One Room Mansion

This event was a special opportunity to view the exhibition while enjoying complimentary refreshments.

One Room Mansion will explore compact living as a viable and necessary 21st-century residential dwelling option for people of all ages and incomes. Inspired by a Japanese concept, the exhibition explores the possibilities associated with individual living spaces grouped with generous communal amenities. This simple concept could provide a more economical supply to meet the increasing demand for housing near transit, restaurants, and workplaces, as society transitions from a suburban, car-oriented lifestyle to an urban, low carbon, one. Paring down the private living space needed by each individual while investing in shared space among residents can turn a single room into an entire mansion!

Curated by Aeron Hodges AIA and A. Quinton Kerns, the exhibition will transform BSA Space into a simulation of a co-living building with compact apartments connected by corridors. Practical living areas and innovative work, laundry, and storage space, as well as indoor and ‘outdoor’ common areas will be highlighted.

Visitors will be encouraged to explore some of the space-saving innovations that make these housing units feasible options for singles and small families. Informed by the history of urban housing in general, the exhibition will explore the lack of housing supply for small households today and will showcase current demographic, economic, and design research to present spiraling neighborhood rental cost data specific to Boston.

A complementary interactive exhibition piece, the Urban Housing Unit (uhü), is on a tour right now across Greater Boston. The uhü is a prototype of a new modular housing concept, intended to serve as a model and conversation-starter for the future of housing in Boston. It was designed by LiveLight and the Boston Society of Architects/AIA in partnership with the Mayor’s Housing Innovation Lab and the BSA Foundation. Learn more about the uhü and its tour across the city here.

Sponsors

• Boston Modern Furniture (primary furniture supplier)
  committed to good design​
• Payne | Bouchier
  Fine builders​
• Tuft & Needle
  honest business with heart
• Segis
  "alive", concrete, practical design​
• Dr. Sofa
  Total furniture solutions​

Very special thanks to The New England Regional Council of Carpenters for generous design and installation support.