Our latest Dezeen x MINI Living video investigates a modular building system based on the shapes of dining tables, designed to help tackle loneliness in cities. 
Table Top Apartments, designed by Chicago-based architecture studio Kwong Von Glinow, is a conceptual system for constructing residential buildings on footprints as small as eight by 30 metres – the typical size of a lot in New York.
Table Top Apartments is a conceptual proposal by Kwong von Glilow for modular housing blocksThe scheme, which was awarded first place in a competition seeking affordable housing solutions for New York, is notable for its unusual "post and slab" structure, based on the form of tables stacked on top of each other.
Each apartment unit is based around a uniform set of four supporting posts. On top of these sits the slab element, which comes in one of three shapes. Slabs can be combined in different ways to make diverse structuresAlison Von Glinow, who co-founded Kwong Von Glinow with Lap Chi Kwong, said the unique character of the proposal comes from the way in which the different slabs can be combined to create formally diverse structures.
"The way in which the three different slab shapes come together can make about 25 different combinations of what the slab actually looks like," she explained.
"The units never come together perfectly and that's done on purpose," she continued. "This brings in light and air between the slabs, and down i...