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Why North America Can't Build Nice Apartments (because of one rule)

About Here · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Transit, cities & urban planningCivil engineering & construction

What it is

About Here explains how North American building codes requiring two staircases make small multi-story apartment buildings hard to build, and contrasts this with places that allow single-stair designs.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters share it in housing and single-stair egress threads as an enjoyable, accessible explainer of the two-stair rule.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2023, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “A video I found interesting related to this”

    Explains how two-stair rules make small multi-story housing infeasible.

    lokar, 2023-12 · Recommendation · in “Santa Cruz plans high-rise living as a fix for sky-high housing costs”

  2. “I caught a YouTube about this recently that I really enjoyed.”

    Enjoyable video on why North America can't build nice apartments.

    languagehacker, 2024-05 · Recommendation · in “Exit Strategy: The Case for Single-Stair Egress”

  3. “I liked this youtube video that covers the same topic[1].”

    Covers the same egress topic.

    aeturnum, 2024-05 · Recommendation · in “Exit Strategy: The Case for Single-Stair Egress”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: building codes, single-stair, housing, fire egress, urbanism

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