In the coming decades, cities will have to house a lot more residents. For now, this unavoidable change is yet unimaginable. However, cities do have to prepare for challenges to come. Cities face the task to offer more housing in an already set framework of the existing context. How can a provision of housing be made in a dense urban context like Midtown, New York?

At the moment Midtown is known for its office like character, a mono-functional money-making machine, one can state. Midtown is the area with the most expensive land underneath the most expensive buildings in Manhattan. These buildings vary between multinational enterprises and residential buildings for wealthy cosmopolitans.

A change is happening that offices are moving towards Hudson Yards This is new urban development south-west of Midtown. It is a booming area offering lots of offices, retail and in the future residential space. With offices moving out of Midtown, there is a new potential for a new character of Midtown. This might be an opportunity for more affordable housing for future residents.

1227 Broadway is a plot with a design for a hotel of 145m high. However, by introducing a new zoning rule, affordable housing is stimulated. By changing the program to affordable housing, high-end housing, and retail it is benefitting the new rule of increasing FAR and hereby unlocking a new potential of value. With this change in program, a new design proposal is made. This new proposal benefits affordable housing, high-end housing, and the developer's interest. Affordable housing is made possible by introducing high-end housing catering to the high land value, for a hypothetical business case. By implementing affordable housing as a base for high-end living, high-end housing is therefore realized on a higher level, gaining a more valuable view over Manhattan. With this new zoning rule, the developer can put a bigger building on the same plot.

Changing an existing plan for a hotel to a plan with affordable housing whilst implementing a trend to luxury, it answers the question: How to make affordable housing on expensive land?

This research is exploring possibilities for Midtown to create affordable housing, by focusing on the increasing gap in the growth of housing prices and income.