One of the things that is common in Europe is that building floors often start with zero for the ground floor and then go both up and down from there.

This is different than most of North America where the ground floor is usually floor number 1 (regardless of what it might be called) and then the floors go up from there.

Using the pictured example (above), the key difference is that, with the ground floor as zero, you end up with the above-grade floors being off by 1 and the top floor being 6 instead of 7.

There is a certain rationality to the European approach that I like, but I am curious how suites on ground floors get typically numbered. I will seek this out and report back.

At Junction House, our ground floor residences follow 101, 102, 103, etc. Following the exact same logic, the European equivalent would be 001, 002, 003, etc. This, admittedly, feels a bit odd.

Which floor convention do you find more intuitive?

Either way, I’m thinking about adopting the European approach for no other reason than that height is a sensitive topic in the world of development, so one less “headline” floor could be helpful. (Half-joking)

San Diego-based Jonathan Segal is a unique kind of builder in that his firm doesn't have any clients. They act as both the architect and developer for all of their projects. This gives them a lot of control over the building process, but also more freedom to experiment.

ULI recently interviewed Segal about his micro-housing project on 320 West Cedar Street in San Diego's Little Italy (called The Continental). And I think it's a pretty interesting case study for us to discuss here on the blog.

It's a 5,000 sf corner site, and Segal developed it with 42 micro units (5 of which are priced at 65% of AMR), two retail spaces at grade, and a separate "single-family townhouse" for his son that sits on top of the retail space at the corner.

The idea was to create relatively affordable "workforce" housing, which is why there's also minimal parking. The 37 market-rate units are currently priced between $1,595 and $1,995 per month, and the affordable ones are about $900 per month.

Segal is forthright in the interview in saying that leasing velocity was slow following completion in December 2019. It was hard to rent these kinds of units in San Diego without any parking. But he viewed the project as an experiment and eventually he did find product-market fit.

The mix of housing types here is also noteworthy. Presumably his son could have just gone out and built a more typical grade-related home. But why do that when you can build on top of an urban retail space and add 42 other homes to the lot?

Never Too Small remains one of my favorite YouTube channels. And I have written about their videos before on the blog. The homes that they feature on their channel are generally below 600 square feet or so, and most of them are well below this mark. Some have even been designed for young families.

One of the common strategies that you'll see with small floor plans is that the bedroom is often reduced to only what is necessary for sleeping and it is often inset within the home, away from any exterior glass. As an example, here are before and after screenshots from a 318 sf apartment in London (link to video).

Before:

After:

In this case, the bedroom was pulled away from the apartment's bay window and a small mezzanine level was created. This makes a lot of sense since the bay window is kind of a main feature -- one that, I think, is better reserved for a primary living space. They also flipped the kitchen up against the other window, rescuing it from the bowels of the apartment.

If I had been the one tasked with redesigning this apartment, this is a floor plan that I could see myself landing on. But here's the thing. All things being equal, I think most people would prefer a bedroom with a window. And even when all things aren't equal, a lot of people seem willing to compromise on their main living space so that they still get one (see before plan).

So before you go ahead and watch the NTS video, I'm curious: Which do you prefer? Would pick the before plan or the after plan given these two options?