For many years, New York's 400-square-foot regulation prevented the construction of tiny apartments like this one.
In 2013, though, Mayor Bloomberg announced a city-sponsored contest for developers to create microapartment designs.
That same year, the Museum of the City of New York debuted a 325-square-foot model apartment featuring creative ways to maximize space.
The kitchen included under-the-counter appliances and a foldaway table that could double as an island.
While the kitchens are small, residents have access to amenities like a rooftop terrace, a gym, grocery delivery, and communal events.
Resident Matthew Alexander prefers the minimalist lifestyle of his studio apartment to sharing space with roommates.
The building's developer enlisted Ollie, a co-living and microhousing startup, to help with the design.
Ollie furnished the apartments with amenities like housekeeping, free WiFi, and a dry-cleaning pickup service.
After Carmel Place opened in Manhattan, the construction of microunits with tiny kitchens expanded into Brooklyn and other boroughs.
Empire Bath and Kitchen has led many of the microapartment designs in Brooklyn, including the kitchen below.
Ollie is now providing amenities for a 43-story high-rise in Long Island City, which is considered the largest ground-up collection of shared apartments in the US.
Over in Brooklyn, Ollie has partnered with the rental building Caesura, which has tiny kitchens featuring stainless steel appliances and quartz countertops.
This $1.29 million, 790-square-foot micro-apartment features a hidden pantry and motor-powered cabinets.
The counter includes grooves for drying plates and cups, along with a pullout cutting board that allows residents to toss scraps directly into the trash can below.
To conserve space, the loft of ReadyMade magazine Editor-in-Chief Andrew Wagner includes open cabinets instead of full shelves.
In many cases, having a microkitchen requires residents to get creative with organizing their fridge and freezer.
For this unit in Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens neighborhood, the developer added as many cabinets as possible to make up for the limited amount of space.
The design team at New York City's eXd-lab created a custom cabinet system called the U-WALL, which folds out to reveal a miniature bar.
The kitchen in this 350-square-foot SoHo penthouse was designed to function like a space twice its size.
The entire apartment was designed by Graham Hill, the founder of the lifestyle and design company LifeEdited.
Like the apartment, the kitchen includes a number of space-saving features such as hidden storage and a microwave tucked into the wall.
The original listing said the apartment was "designed by geniuses for geniuses," with sliding walls, a built-in sound system, and an air filtration system.
Source: 6sqft
Microkitchens can also be found in tiny homes like this one, which was displayed in Manhattan's Herald Square for one night in September.
It has since been moved to Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, for a temporary stay at the world's largest tiny home community.
Earlier this year, comedian Kevin Hart curated a tiny home in New York for Booking.com. Hart told USA Today that he partnered with the travel booking site because the design fits his lifestyle.
"I love to do things that coincide with what I do, and the way that I move," Hart said. "Being that I am a guy who is constantly on the road, constantly traveling, where I’m staying becomes a priority."
Source: USA Today
