Voluntary Simplicity; The Hive; Hipster Haven

Since spring break my 2nd year studio class has been working on a project entitled Hipstar Haven. We were given a warehouse off of spring garden st. that is owned by UNCG. We were told we needed to redo the warehouse to fit as many 900 sq. ft. apt/units. We also needed to included a community center/coffee shop. We also needed to keep the beams and columns already in the space. Things we were asked to keep in mind when designing our layout of the warehouse and our individual units was:
*XY generation
*single and couples 25-30 yrs. old, making $40,000 to $50,000 a year
*cost effective
My partner Katie Reynolds and I designed our units so that they looked like bee hives. So we called our warehouse community "the Hive."
Below is a rendered image of what the coffee shop/community center would look like.
When designing my own unit I found the term Voluntary Simplicity. This is a growing movement of people who have discovered that happiness and fulfillment does not lie in have lots of money or new and bigger things, but rather in loved ones, and a connection with the community. I thought this term described the xy generation fairly well. As we get older we find that we loose touch with people and the things that matter. Being a part of the Y generation I realize that while I need money to survive, there is no need to have an abundance of objects. So for my space I decided to keep it as simple as possible and include only the things necessary. Also while designing my space I realized that there was a regularity in linear elements, so I decided to stick with that throughout the rest of my design.
North wall elevation of loft:
south wall elevation of 1st floor:
Wall Section showing 1st floor, stair landing, and windows to ceiling.
When designing my stairs I new what I wanted them to look like but I didn't know how to support them. I wanted the riser and tread to be visible so the stringer was out of the question. I decided to attach steel cables to the landing and ceiling to help support the landing. I also created a beam in the center of the second set of stairs to support them. The space below the first set of stairs was only 5'3" from floor to landing. I thought that it was a waste of space so I pulled back the first 5 set of stairs to create drawers. This solved one of my design problems which was the idea of having room for storage without having to create closets.
sketch model of staircase:
This is the floor plan of my first floor. The dotted line in the middle is the one beam I had in my space. To the right of the beam the ceiling height is 11' and on the left side it is 12'.

Loft floor plan:
Perspective looking at living space, stairs, and dining area. The clear story windows on the right wall are made of translucent Plexiglas that has a light blue tint. This allows for natural light to flow from one unit to the other without being able to clearly see the objects in the neighboring units. The couch is the only piece of furniture that I didn't design myself. Everything else in the unit including the bed in the loft I designed myself.
Perspective of kitchen. Clerestory windows repeated on this wall also.
Perspective of bed in loft area:
Perspective of balcony:
Another requirement for the project was that we needed to include at least 4 universal units. I designed my own unit so that if need be it could easily be transfered into a universal unit. All the red circles are 5' diameters, showing that space that look tight are actually accessible.