Why North America Can't Build Nice Apartments (because of one rule)
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.
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.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2023 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends lokar · 2023-12 · on “Santa Cruz plans high-rise living as a fix for sky-high housing costs”
A video I found interesting related to this: [this video] Outdated building codes require 2 stairs, making smaller multi-story housing infeasible. So only larger (whole block) projects pencil out, but people don’t like them because they don’t fit in well. I wonder if smaller (the size of 1-2 normal lots) 4-6 floor buildings spread out more would face less resistance.
Recommends languagehacker · 2024-05 · on “Exit Strategy: The Case for Single-Stair Egress”
I caught a YouTube about this recently that I really enjoyed. "Why North America Can't Build Nice Apartments (Because of One Rule)" [this video]
Recommends aeturnum · 2024-05 · on “Exit Strategy: The Case for Single-Stair Egress”
I liked this youtube video that covers the same topic[1]. The US focusing entirely on this strategy to increase fire safety seems obviously stupid to me. As people say in other comments here - Europe and other countries require better fire suppression measures and materials instead of particular egress options. An obvious improvement would be to allow builders to use any combination of these approaches to achieve a minimal level of safety. [1] [this video]
Cites wardedVibe · 2023-12 · on “The Housing Shortage Is Larger Than You Think”
Even fire safety is frequently done in an overly onerous and ineffective way, e.g. the double staircase requirement that doesn't apply in many other places because other, more space efficient solutions were found. [this video]
Cites mitthrowaway2 · 2024-01 · on “The case for single-stair multifamily”
See also a related video by About Here: [this video] which mentions this very pertinent section of the US National Housing Association Proceedings (1913), p.212: "Do everything possible in our laws to encourage the construction of private dwellings and even two-family dwellings, because the two-family house is the next least objectionable type, and penalize so far as we can in our statute, the multiple dwelling of any kind... if we require multiple dwellings to be fireproof, and thus increase the cost of construction; if we require stairs to be fireproofed, even where there are only three families; if we require fire escapes and a host of other things, all dealing with fire protection, we are on
Cites kqr2 · 2024-06 · on “In Praise of 5-Over-1 Buildings (2019)”
Also for smaller buildings, they should probably remove the need for two fire exits . Video: Why North America Can't Build Nice Apartments (because of one rule) [this video]
Cites seanmcdirmid · 2024-12 · on “Rethinking Zoning to Increase Affordable Housing ”
I saw a video about this comparing Seattle’s more modern code to Vancouver’s. I think it was this one [this video] Seattle still doesn’t have enough housing, but the relaxed stairwell requirement helps.
Cites yesfitz · 2025-11 · on “Families say cost of housing means they'll have fewer or no children”
The lack of large apartments in the US is at least partially caused by building codes requiring two means of fire egress (meaning two separate stairwells in taller buildings) which limits the size and layout of individual apartments. Here’s a video on the subject: [this video] Long story short though, modern fire mitigation techniques (materials, sprinklers, fire doors) greatly reduce the risk posed by having just one staircase, which would open up a wide array of apartment layouts.