I was up early on Sunday morning and I tweeted this out:

620 sf. Family of four. Could you do it? https://t.co/raV5Ha3NIi

— Brandon G. Donnelly (@donnelly_b)

October 25, 2015

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It’s a link to a Dwell article about a New York family of four that lives in a 620 square foot apartment. It’s technically a one-bedroom apartment but the way they have it set up is that the two kids share the bedroom and the parents sleep in the living room similar to as if it were a studio apartment.

And my question in the tweet was, could you do it?

Part of the reason the article caught my attention was because I currently live in a 640 square foot apartment – but as a family of one. And not surprisingly it’s more than enough space for me. Would I still feel the same way if it were a family of two? I believe so. But what about if it were a family of 3 or 4? I suspect it wouldn’t be as effortless, though certainly not impossible.

I love the idea of distilling one’s life down to only what is absolutely necessary. And if you happen to live in a city, like New York, where the median price of a one-bedroom apartment is somewhere around $3,400 per month, there can certainly be lifestyle advantages to doing more with less.

So I’d like to re-ask the question here to the Architect This City community: Could you do it? How minimalist could you go?

I was up early on Sunday morning and I tweeted this out:

620 sf. Family of four. Could you do it? https://t.co/raV5Ha3NIi

— Brandon G. Donnelly (@donnelly_b)

October 25, 2015

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

It’s a link to a Dwell article about a New York family of four that lives in a 620 square foot apartment. It’s technically a one-bedroom apartment but the way they have it set up is that the two kids share the bedroom and the parents sleep in the living room similar to as if it were a studio apartment.

And my question in the tweet was, could you do it?

Part of the reason the article caught my attention was because I currently live in a 640 square foot apartment – but as a family of one. And not surprisingly it’s more than enough space for me. Would I still feel the same way if it were a family of two? I believe so. But what about if it were a family of 3 or 4? I suspect it wouldn’t be as effortless, though certainly not impossible.

I love the idea of distilling one’s life down to only what is absolutely necessary. And if you happen to live in a city, like New York, where the median price of a one-bedroom apartment is somewhere around $3,400 per month, there can certainly be lifestyle advantages to doing more with less.

So I’d like to re-ask the question here to the Architect This City community: Could you do it? How minimalist could you go?