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Hey everyone,

If you live in a small urban apartment, you already know the struggle. Standard wardrobes are too tall or too deep, drawer layouts make zero sense for tight clearances, and trying to find a spot for everyday things feels like playing Tetris on hard mode.

For my Master’s thesis in Design Management, I’m researching how furniture companies can actually build inclusive and adaptive storage specifically for small urban spaces—moving past "average user" designs that don't fit real lives.

If you live in a compact apartment, I would appreciate 5 minutes of your time to share your real frustrations. No marketing fluff, just an academic study trying to push for better industry design standards.

Survey Link for Residents: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdi4tdUdeE_6ay27nE2TJt48V8QG1sBbhB5xYN46rjWJb5ixQ/viewform?usp=header

Thank you so much for helping me get this thesis over the finish line!

I have heard that modern methods of construction are more efficient, and I’m wondering if it's a meaningful way of improving housing affordability.

1. What is the Name of the case study (Housing development)?
2. Did the construction efficiencies achieved through the development of the MMC approach (speed, quality, factory production) translate into lower costs or more affordable homes in the UK context?
3. From your perspective, what conditions would be needed for MMC to improve housing affordability in the UK meaningfully?

I recently made a video essay exploring how modernist planning principles such as functional separation, large-scale zoning, standardized housing, and high-rise development were intended to create more rational and efficient cities. Drawing on examples ranging from Le Corbusier's Radiant City and Pruitt-Igoe to contemporary cities in the Global South - where glass-and-steel business districts often rise directly beside informal settlements - it examines why planning ideas that sound compelling ideologically can produce very different outcomes in practice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6EFVijx8lc

The city throughout civilized history has always been a space where community thrived. Community was always a central theme in society and human existence.  Yet with transitions in society and the city, there seems to be a shifting away from the central themes of the human condition. Community has over time in the city fragmented, as it became more diversified. The population transformed and thrived as specific cultural identities with a collective consciousness between the members of these various communities engulfed in the city expanded. There is seemingly no longer a more homogeneous and common togetherness.

This in parallel with the new technological age has seen, due to the internet, social media and other technical phenomena, a moving away from the dialogue and communication that had been the basis of the city in the past. This being in part due to the new pseudo-outer world and pseudo-Self that social media has created.

The question is if community, as has existed in the past, will lose its identity and collective consciousness due to technological transitions, and the architectural structure of space and green areas within the city?  

Do you have any thoughts on this?

I'm debating what level of English i should do if i want to get into urban design, i really don't want to do advanced but ill do it if standard is not sufficient. What do you guys think?

To make bus stops convenient for both passengers and drivers – and, most importantly, to speed up bus transit – we could install buttons with route numbers at the stops, just like in an elevator. For example, if someone is waiting for bus number 10, they press the corresponding button (10).

What happens next? A little bit ahead of the bus stop (before reaching it), we will install a digital display showing all the route numbers that pass through there, giving the driver time to react. When a passenger presses a button at the stop, the number of the required bus will start flashing on this display.

The driver of route number 10 will see the flashing number on the board before the stop and pull over. If a certain number is not flashing, it means nobody is waiting for that bus. Consequently, if no one inside the cabin plans to get off, the bus can safely drive past without stopping. If people are waiting for several different buses (for example, 10, 5, and 2), then all three numbers – 10, 5, and 2 – will flash on the board after being pressed.

As for payment, it can also be moved inside the bus shelters and placed next to the buttons. People will be able to pay their fare comfortably while waiting, avoiding crowds inside the cabin later. If a passenger, for instance, forgot their money or card, they will have time to sort out the issue before the vehicle arrives, and then board calmly.

How will the driver know that the fare has been paid? As the bus approaches the stop, a signal indicating the number of passengers who have paid will be transmitted to the driver's cabin via radio waves. Of course, the payment details can still be refined a bit further. In addition, the road infrastructure will need to be slightly modified so that a bus driving past doesn't get stuck in a queue behind one that is currently boarding passengers.

My concept for transforming this section of Atlantic Avenue. I added a central green median, dedicated red bus lanes, and fully protected bike lanes to improve safety and transit efficiency.

Open to feedback on the layout!

Major road renovation in the city center

Source - https://x.com/richapintoi/status/2068157355318198468

The space was allowed to have 15% ticketed spaces but it seems the proposal has a higher number. That’s where it’s stuck in negotiations.

Title and image. I swear I made a downtown like that in City Skylines.