With the world population expected to rise from 7.2 billion to 9.6 billion by 2050, living space is becoming more and more of an issue. A student at Parsons has a vision of our future homes that is both clever and disquieting. Bernando Schorr's "Mixed Reality Living Spaces" project highlights how augmented reality can be used to make windowless 100-square-foot apartments hospitable. The video on his website shows projections on the walls changing to accommodate the different configurations of the environment's only furniture, a trio of modular white boxes. The results are depressingly spartan but functional. Schorr's video demonstrates how a single room can be turned into a dining area, an office, a bedroom, and even a home entertainment space. It's not impossible to imagine the idea eventually evolving into something like the room from this clip of the sci-fi movie Cloud Atlas.

Over the years, many have worked to solve the problems of urban overcrowding. The MIT Media Lab, for example, recently unveiled the latest iteration of CityHome, a vision for a high-tech modular studio apartment. In 2010, Reuters reported on how architect Gary Chang made his 344-square-foot home into a veritable mansion.