If you are between the ages of 18 and 34, you make up over a third of Boston’s population. You’ve earned your degree and are ready to begin your adult life in the city, but where do you live? Your prospects for a new career or starting a family seem to take a back seat to concerns of affording housing and how to pay off your student debt. Think it’s hard to find suitable housing that fits your needs? Well guess what, you’re not alone.

What’s IN, a collaborative design/research initiative, is working to find solutions for urban living at an approachable price point. Through research, focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and first-hand accounts, we are identifying the specific housing needs of Boston’s population. At the same time, we are working with city organizations to help promote change in housing options.

One approach centers on building units with less square footage in transit-oriented neighborhoods. We introduced this model of living small while sharing more, and tested the idea with hundreds of visitors through a full size, 300-square-foot mock-up at Architecture Boston Expo (ABX) 2012. Our current research focuses on opportunities for neighborhood growth, creating density and diversity within Boston – so living in the city isn’t just a luxury, but a reality.

Today, with a stronger economy and a flurry of luxury apartment construction, Boston faces the challenge of providing housing units for the middle class. According to the 2013 Greater Boston Housing Report Card, close to 40 percent of the city’s residences are single-person households, yet Boston’s total supply of available one bedroom and studio units is only 17 percent.

The Housing Report Card also noted that while rents have increased 80 percent since 1990, salaries have not kept pace. Further, the discrepancy between supply and demand – the segment of the population that wants small units (two thirds) compared to the inventory of small units (one third) – creates a price war, in which the fight for smaller units becomes increasingly more competitive, allowing the market to take advantage and raise rents even higher.

So how can Boston increase the supply of right-sized, right-priced units, located near public transportation? In a 2013 speech, Mayor Tom Menino announced Housing Boston 2020, a plan to build 30,000 units of housing in the city within the next six years. Menino also pushed to reduce the number of single-family units allocated to college and university students, noting that Boston’s colleges and universities still have more than 34,000 students living in off-campus housing, concentrated primarily in high-demand areas of the city.

As a candidate, Mayor-elect Marty Walsh said, “Access to quality, affordable housing for all residents in Boston will define the Walsh administration.” Under his plan to create so-called workforce housing, Boston will pass the Community Preservation Act, increase the number of units falling under the city’s Inclusionary Development Policy and create tax and zoning incentives. Affordable housing, the mayor-elect says, will ensure families, working adults, and young residents [can] stay in Boston without negatively impacting market rate housing efforts.

Thinking Micro

To help foster the discussion of where housing could develop, What’s IN has defined possible sites for clusters of micro-units. We started by looking at maps indicating rental prices in different parts of the city and identified six neighborhoods that fit our guidelines – proximity to downtown, access to public transportation and a rich urban living environment – which could offer lower-cost building opportunities. These neighborhoods included: East Boston, Chinatown, Roxbury, Dorchester, Allston/Brighton, and the city of Somerville. Additionally, we worked with the cities of Boston and Somerville to identify building sites owned by the cities.

Then we created a Livability Matrix based on interviews with residents and shop owners, compiled on different days of the week and different times of day, we charted the impressions of the people who live and work in these neighborhoods to identify possible areas of interest suitable for the development of smaller residential units with approachable prices.

We discovered each neighborhood offers different environments that could accommodate various lifestyles. For example, East Boston is filled with a sense of community brought together through tree-lined streets, heavy pedestrian activity, and waterfront access with sweeping views of Boston. Chinatown’s density brings together a richness of culture and amenities at the heart of the city. Dorchester and Roxbury house a diverse population that supports local business and are linked to downtown by public transportation. Allston/Brighton houses some of Boston’s youngest residents and boasts an assortment of amenities catering not only to singles, but also families. Somerville, known as the most densely populated municipality in New England, still retains a calm sense of community as residents go about their lives, starting their careers and families.

At the just-completed ABX 2013, WHAT’S IN demonstrated how public space enhances micro-unit living with the QUAD, a fully adaptable public space for spontaneous social interaction. We built a mock-up on the floor of the conference hall and invited attendees to learn about our neighborhood research and provide feedback. WHAT’S IN also teamed up with the BSA Housing Committee and the Emerging Professionals Network to present reGEN Boston, an international competition to create urban living models that can accommodate multiple generations living under one roof.

Further research and collaboration is needed to create guidelines and funding opportunities for new development sites. WHAT’S IN is prepared to work with Boston and Somerville for land procurement so we begin developing a viable, affordable solution for living in the city. By knowing where to build, who to build for, and how to make these new housing units available to the middle class, we can finally make Boston home not just for the well-to-do, but also for the overlooked and underserved.

Carey Walker is an architectural designer at Sasaki Assoc. Aeron Hodges is the co-founder of WHAT’S IN and a designer at ADD Inc. Quinton Kerns is the co-founder of WHAT’S IN and a designer at ADD Inc.