New York's empty walls could be covered with honeycomb-like clusters of pods to house the city's growing homeless population, as part of this proposal by creative agency Framlab.
Oslo and New York City-based Framlab developed the Homed scheme in response to the growing number of people sleeping rough in New York City, which has risen by 40 per cent since 2012.
Mural artwork depicted by Viktor Miller-Gausa
As available land is limited and expensive, Framlab's proposal makes use of the "vertical lots" formed by building walls to create temporary shelters.
The scheme imagines the construction of scaffolding onto windowless facades across the city, and slotting the hexagon-shaped modules inside.

"Although almost every square foot of space in NYC has been claimed, there still manages to exist an abundance of 'vertical lots' sitting idle," said Framlab. "These are the blank sidewalls of buildings that emerge and disappear as new developments come and go, providing hundreds of acres of available 'land'."

Access to the units would be provided by staircases fitted within scaffolding frames. Framlab chose this structure as it can be easily and quickly erected or disassembled, making the system adaptable in the event that a site is developed on.
The parasitic system bears similarity to architectural designer James Furzer's proposal for temporary sleeping pods for London's homeless, which would be made of timber.

Framlab's prefabricated units, howeve...