Missing Middle Housing.

OPTICOS DESIGN FOUNDER DANIEL PAROLEK inspired a new movement for housing choice in 2010 when he coined the term “Missing Middle Housing,” a transformative concept that highlights a time- proven and beloved way to provide more housing and more housing choices in sustainable, walkable places.

Missing Middle Housing: House-scale buildings with multiple units in walkable neighborhoods.

These building types, such as duplexes, fourplexes and bungalow courts, provide diverse housing options to support walkable communities, locally-serving retail, and public transportation options. We call them “Missing” because they have typically been illegal to build since the mid-1940s and “Middle” because they sit in the middle of a spectrum between detached single-family homes and mid-rise to high-rise apartment buildings, in terms of form and scale, as well as number of units and often, affordability. And while they are “missing” from our new building stock, these types of buildings from the 1920s and 30s are beloved by many who have lived in them.