“Missing Middle Housing: Thinking Big and Building Small to Respond to Today’s Housing Crisis” by Daniel G. Parolek

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. 

Called “Missing” because these residential homes 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, and are now living, in them.