Is an even smaller New York apartment the key to sustainable living?

Ollie says its apartments help reduce carbon emissions by housing twice as many people than a traditional building. But is more urban density the answer?

Chris Bledsoe is of the contrarian opinion that most New York City apartments are too large. His company, Ollie, rents studios on East 27th Street in Manhattan that range from 260-360 square feet in size, well below the city's housing code standard of at least 400 square feet. Take a tour, and each unit looks like a furnished dining room, bedroom or living room - but rarely like all three of those spaces at the same time.

By providing multipurpose furnishings and high-end amenities like housekeeping and grocery shopping services, Bledsoe believes he has cracked the code on sustainable urban housing. Inside the apartments, the desk converts into a dinner table; the bed folds into a wall, leaving a couch in its place; clothing racks accordion out from the closets to make for tighter storage capacity.