Treehugger founder Graham Hill came up with a competition challenge: to have less stuff and live in smaller spaces, like the 420SF apartment in New York City he will renovate in 2011.

The design needed to support the life of a real person in the apartment - someone who works, eats, lives, and entertains, a design that allows for:
• a sit-down dinner for 12
• a comfortable lounging option for 8 people
• space for 2 guests with some visual and ideally auditory privacy
• a home office
• a work area with space for a rolling tool chest
• a hideable kitchen
As the room function is changed, it should not feel like you are sleeping in your office or eating in your bedroom. At the same time, it should be easy and quick enough to change the room function that one would actually do it.

Ideas were posted on Jovoto, a co-creation site, and feedback and conversation helped you improve your ideas.

MOD{all}Studio wanted create an innovative solution that minimized waste, maximized flexibility, and inspired replication. To that end, a concept revealed itself, to start with what is already in the apartment and  reuse or repurpose this inventory in order to minimize demolition waste, making the dumpster obsolete. This inventory includes wall and ceiling systems, cabinetry, fixtures and appliances.

The design itself was this process and one that is continually informed by the concept. It makes one think about the potential a material has and how it can be re-imagined through innovation and imagination. To take the Inventory of what was on hand, of what it is, and compare it to the Program, of what it could or needed to be, was an exercise we enjoyed very much, and one that needed to be explored, especially for a competition that exalted the virtues of shrinking one's carbon footprint.