Skip to main content

NYC Apartment – 420 square feet, eight rooms, with solar

A New York Cityapartment – 420 square feet and eight “rooms.” Also equipped with a bit of solar power with battery energy storage to charge up your cell phone and power a light or two.

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


A New York City apartment - 420 square feet and eight "rooms." Also equipped with a bit of solar power with battery energy storage to charge up your cell phone and power a light or two. This is the home of treehugger.com and lifeedited.com founder Graham Hill.

One of the keys to Hill's apartment is creating functional spaces or "rooms." The overall floorplan is simple, with moving walls and lots of built in storage.

Room #1 - Living room


On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


Room #2 - Office

Rooms #3 & 4 - Bedroom & Guest Bedroom

With privacy curtains

Room #5 - Dining room

Room #6 - Bathroom (with walk-in shower)

Room #7 - Toilet (and private conversation space)

With a flip down bench for private conversations.

Room #8 - Kitchen

And - for those who want to incorporate local generation into their apartment, Hill has also included a small solar panel (on the window frame outside) with battery storage for charging his electronics and powering a small light.

To see this apartment in action, one can take a look at the youtube video posted by GIZMODO.

Photo credit: All photos by Matthew Williams for LifeEdited and used with permission.