In the contemporary world, life has changed so much. Always in a rush, without solid reference points and certainties of what will be tomorrow, society has modified their behaviors and their lifestyles, other than changed the typical structure of families. More urban-settled people, more one-person households, more rapid technological innovations, more dynamic and fluid relationships with others. How is it possible to keep living in the same houses of fifty years ago? This is one of the questions from which, the City of New York, ended up in promoting, in 2012, the adAPT NYC Competition, a pilot tentative for searching and testing the down-sizing path for creating a new type of housing for meeting the new needs of New Yorkers.