If we examine the significance and terminologies associated with Housing Typologies\Units, we found that in urban scales (micro unit\block\neighborhood\community) and after understanding and analyzing the social, economic, sustainable and demographic significances , the minimum requisite space possible, the public spaces within the unit and their interaction with each other defines what is the minimum units sizes, how is the boundary between Public\private and the most important thing, the way newyorkers interact with each other, how it is their life style based upon sharing\individualism terms.

Considering a multi-scalar understanding and putting special importance on how the program (Interface) of the units has changed from the 20th century to now, where technology (including social media), the economy (especially after the financial crisis of 2008), and employment (co-working setups)- defines or reprogram the units of the next generation.

Nowadays the globalization\interconnection produces a new trend of “sharing” (communism) in opposite of “individualism” (capitalism). The concept of unit used to be a storage of spaces for working, living and resting as privately as possible and with different definitions of publicness\privacy in all the scales on the city.

There is a new tend to start to detach and push that space in the cloud, with a new private\public arrangement to be studied and analyzed.

I understand that the new collection of urban apps (Seamless, remote work, Amazon, storage hubs), working (co working, sharing spaces),infrastructure (city-bike, zip car, pull car) and relationships (Facebook, relationships finder apps..)are changing the definition of the contemporary program required, the definition of common areas, so;

where all the detached spaces go in the community? (Mutations, opportunities to manipulation)

• What about the traditional symbol of the kitchen and the women? By Robyn Elizabeth Adams and her study about symbols attached to spaces, public history or the Kitchenless House by Architect Anna Puigjaner

What are the meanings of Living space, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, corridor, infrastructure connected the network or the cloud?

How this diffuse line of publicness\privacy has changed from the unit itself to the communities in the vertical city? How should this indetermination be addressed now from the micro to the macro units and toward vertical urbanity? 

On the other hand, the city is experiencing a boom in luxury housing projects where amenities and good public spaces still are lacking on the lobbies or ground floors. Architect Steven Holl took issue with these new developments (mostly  skinny towers) in an Opinion piece for Dezeen, stating that “architecture with a sense of social purpose is becoming increasingly rare” in New York. 

Understanding all of the changes in the NYC demographic during the past 20 years (putting special emphasis on the arrival of many immigrants since the last decade of the last  century, the aggressive gentrification in all the boros, and the most common implantation of the apps that allows to connect communities or supply services to the new middle class),  the urban planners, municipality, artists, architects and developers should  analyze this complexity bringing to the discussion different hypothesis to create a new manhattanism manifesto. A manifesto that helps to understand those mutations and how they are addressed in the New York Code regulation. From my perspective, New York will need to find new politics in negotiation between the government and the communities in order to make New York a more livable place.

How will the boundary of public and private be defined after this new detachment affects our urban life?

Ruben Cabanillas Ramos.