SPOT

THE HUMAN ANGLE: YOUNG PROFESSIONALS AND URBAN EXCLUSION

Across modern cities, housing costs outpace wages. Rents eat up half of young professionals’ income; mortgages are out of reach. The result is predictable: long commutes, shared apartments, and the slow exodus of a generation from the city. Urban centers, once places of opportunity, are turning into exclusive zones for offices, tourists, and the wealthy. A generation that values flexibility and mobility is trapped by systems built for permanence and ownership.

GLOBAL HOUSING COST BURDEN

Based on OECD data, the share of income spent on rent has steadily increased since 2015. On average, renters worldwide now allocate over one-third of their income to housing, compared to roughly one-quarter before 2015. This growing imbalance highlights how wages have failed to keep pace with urban rent inflation.

URBAN RENT BURDENS

Major urban centers show even stronger disparities. In cities like London, Los Angeles, and Paris, renters regularly spend 30–40% of their income on housing, far above affordability thresholds of 25%. Meanwhile, cities such as Copenhagen or Tokyo show lower ratios due to stronger regulation and alternative housing policies.
Long-term renters face stagnant mobility and shrinking living space, while younger residents are increasingly priced out of central locations altogether.

GLOBAL DRIVERS OF THE HOUSING CRISIS

This is not a local failure but a systemic one. Housing supply lags far behind demand, throttled by restrictive zoning, slow bureaucracy, and inflated construction costs. Meanwhile, real estate speculation drives prices up and leaves homes vacant. At current rates, the world needs 96,000 new homes every day just to keep up. A pace cities can’t reach with conventional building.

Urban Growth AND Housing Need

Currently there are roughly 8 billion people living on earth and around half of the population is living in cities. By 2050, the world’s cities will absorb 2.5 billion new residents, according to the United Nations. As urban populations swell, the demand for affordable, well-located homes will far outpace conventional construction capacity. Without new models of compact, adaptable housing, cities risk deepening the divide between those who can live near opportunity and those pushed to the periphery.

THE SPATIAL IRONY:
PARKING VS. HOUSING

In today’s cities, space is not equally shared. While land for people and housing grows scarcer, land for cars remains abundant. Across global cities, 8–20% of all urban land is dedicated to parking, most of it is off-street and often empty overnight. This imbalance is stark across contexts: car-centric American cities allocate vast surface lots, dense Asian cities maintain rigid parking structures, and European cities still devote over half of public space to roads and car storage combined.

THE DEBATE:
CAR STORAGE OR URBAN LIFE?

The urban priority remains skewed: stationary vehicles are given more room than human lives. Younger generations want access, not ownership. They want vibrant neighborhoods, not asphalt deserts. Cities that cling to car-first planning risk hollowing out their centers. Cities that reclaim parking for people can restore density, affordability, and life.

WHY SPOT, WHY NOW

SPOT is a compact, self-sufficient home that fits within a single parking space. Prefabricated, movable, and carbon-light, it reclaims overlooked land and turns it into livable space. Every underused parking stall becomes a potential dwelling. Fast to install, reversible, and adaptable. SPOT transforms what cities already have, too much parking, into what they desperately need: affordable, central housing.

Beyond its footprint, SPOT challenges the imbalance at the heart of modern cities: we dedicate up to 40% of urban land to cars while housing costs push people out. By inserting living space where vehicles once stood, SPOT reclaims proximity, flexibility, and community. It doesn’t require new land, heavy infrastructure, or long approvals. It uses what’s already built. Its modular system allows quick deployment across rooftops, surface lots, or underused structures, scaling housing supply instantly and sustainably.

More than a micro-home, SPOT is a catalyst for urban transformation. It proposes a lighter, more reversible model of living. One that evolves with the city rather than consuming it. Each unit operates autonomously yet can connect to existing networks when needed, bridging independence with resilience.

From Parking
to Living

Each unit is energy-efficient and self-sufficient, integrating renewable systems and water management. Modularity and easy deployment ensures adaptability: SPOT can shift as urban policies evolve or as demand changes. It’s a housing model aligned with how younger generations live: mobile, flexible, connected, and environmentally aware.

SPOT is not just a product; it’s a strategy to turn urban leftovers into life-giving opportunities. A pragmatic, low-impact step toward more resilient, inclusive, and human-centered cities.