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Posts Tagged ‘Apartment’

Social Structure: Apartment Tower Fosters Community Creation

24 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

social apartment complex balconies

Tall residential complexes often share very little common space, leading to a relatively solitary living experience despite the density of dwellings – this design aims to change that paradigm dramatically.

social interaction building

Indeed, helping people get to know their neighbors the driving concept behind this building in Antwerp, Belgium, where similar units are clustered around shared balconies and gardens.

social structure community interactions

Communal dining, rooftop deck, bike repair and indoor green spaces also encourage further interaction, increasing opportunities for chance encounters. As Black Swan author Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes, “This makes living in big cities invaluable because you increase the odds of serendipitous encounters — you gain exposure to the envelope of serendipity”

social housing site plan

Designed by C.F. Møller Architects and Brut Architecture and Urban Design, the idea is to increase interactions both within smaller sets of apartments and throughout the complex.

social building site section

All of this is meant to help residents form bonds more quickly, beyond the one-off greetings in elevators and periodic meetings in one-per-building community rooms.

social urban design strategy

The conceptual intent is also cleverly legible on the exterior of the building, with a facade that is broken down into different sections to create a series of scales showing small individual units and collections thereof within the framework of the larger structure.

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Dark Tower: Decay Inside Africa’s Tallest Apartment Complex

Before a long descent into darkness, the cylindrical Ponte City Apartments began life as a luxurious tribute to growth and wealth in Johannesburg , filled with …
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Coming Next Year: World’s First Floating Apartment Complex

Living in close proximity to ever-rising water can be a difficult prospect, and while the Dutch have come up with all sorts of ways to work with instead of …
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Building for Billionaires: Luxury Tower with Car Elevators

If you’re rich enough to live in the Porsche Design Tower, you’re rich enough to have a mega-expensive car or two worth hauling up to your …
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Speedy Prefab: How a 9-Story Apartment Was Built in 5 Days

03 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

prefab building hoist unit

We see conceptual modular designs of this kind all of the time, but rarely such exquisite real-world proof of how fast construction can be in the age of prefabrication.

prefab building lift process

prefab building crane decks

The recently-completed One9 building in Melbourne, Australia, using the Hickory Group’s Unitized Building system to install 34 units in less than 1 week around a prefab-paneled concrete core.

prefab building 5 days

prefab building construction photo

Created by architect Nonda Katsalidis, this approach allows each one-or-two-bedroom dwelling to be built almost entirely offsite then stacked like a puzzle piece onto the site, completed with decks and fenestration in place.

prefab structure unit interior

Utility connections are also built in, making it easy to hook up electrical and plumbing systems. In theory, the process can be used to build up to 70-story structures.

The building boasts a number of sustainable materials and strategies, making its speed of construction all the more impressive. Per JetsonGreen, “The units in the building are all fitted with double glazed windows that offer superior thermal protection and acoustic performance. The building is also equipped with a grey water recycling system. There is also a rainwater harvesting system in place.

prefab finished apartment building

As for green energy, “Rooftop mounted solar panels provide enough energy to heat the water used up by the residents, while the building is also equipped with a H.W.S system that provides highly efficient water circulation. Energy efficient lighting is installed throughout the building, to conserve energy expenditure. The One9 building also has a 6 Star energy rating.”

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Coming Next Year: World’s First Floating Apartment Complex

Living in close proximity to ever-rising water can be a difficult prospect, and while the Dutch have come up with all sorts of ways to work with instead of …
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Architectural Love Story: 10 Real Castles Built for Love

Architecture is influenced by Eros, also known as Cupid. Expressing love in architecture is divinely romantic. For Valentine’s Day, here are 10 castles built …
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Zaha Hadid’s Apartment Block Overlooking NYC High Line

A glittering glass apartment block with volumes flowing into each other in dynamic stacked arrangements will be architect Zaha Hadid’s first building in …
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Compact Cube Home: Storage Unit Turned Micro Apartment

03 Jul

[ By Steph in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

Compact Cube Apartment 1

A compact space with thirty years’ history as a storage unit is now a sleek, modern apartment outfitted with everything a single occupant needs with the addition of a built-in bed platform with storage. Architect Karin Matz purchased the unit in a state of total disarray, as the previous owner had begun a renovation in the 1980s that was never completed. When she began, it was a mess of peeling wallpaper, no electricity and “a bathroom only with signs of rats as inhabitants.”

Compact Cube Apartment 2

Compact Cube Apartment 3

The new architectural volume consists mostly of IKEA kitchen units, extended beyond the food preparation space to form a storage-filled platform for the raised bed. A small void under the bed offers a closet space, and a glass partition gives the little loft a sense of separation from the kitchen.

Compact Cube Apartment 4

Compact Cube Apartment 6

Aside from the bathroom, which was modernized, the rest of the apartment has been left virtually as Matz found it, with all surfaces remaining the way they’ve looked for the past 20 years. The rough, weathered surfaces of the walls contrast with the smooth new wood of the floors and furniture.

Compact Cube Apartment 7

Says Matz, “In a city like Stockholm with enormous housing shortage and with every square meter increasing in price by the minute, this story was somehow impossible to understand and resist. The finished apartment is the result of a fascination for this; a try to let the previous layers and stories of a space live on and at the same time fill the requirements for the new story that will take place.”

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100 Cubic Meters: Split-Level Urban Micro-Condo in Madrid

Good home design is not just about a perfect product but about process and context, as illustrated in this case through diagrams, videos and photos of how to …
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Storage Tubs for Bathrooms with Precious Little Space

No room in your bathroom for those essential items? These clever bathtub storage solutions give you more space in a most unexpected place.
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That’s Sketchy: Rough Sketches Turned Into Real Furniture

These images may look like people photoshopped onto a background of sketches, but look again – those scribbles are actual, three-dimensional furniture. …
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Apartment Arcade: Passersby Play Game Through Window

30 Jan

[ By Steph in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

Apartment Arcade 1

A large storefront window in a Belgian designer’s work/live space invites passersby to pause and play an arcade game with a fun interactive installation. Where others living in such a busy urban location might want to prevent strangers from peering into their private spaces, Kris Temmerman asks them to stop and stay a while.

Apartment Arcade 2

Tennerman designed and created the entire thing himself, including the console that’s currently attached to the exterior windowsill and the LED screen. The game is run on an Arduino without an external computer, just to make the process a little more challenging.

Apartment Arcade 3

The game is also his own creation, and he even had a friend record the music. “I needed something that would appeal to a large audience (the people in my street) and something was fun to play. So I took the good old gaming cliché, where the world gets invaded by aliens and you have to fight your way to the end boss, save the world and the human race . With my minimal resolution of 16*90 pixels, I didn’t have much other choice than making it pixel-art style.”

Apartment Arcade 4

The entire process, including diagrams of the wiring, can be found in detail at Tennerman’s website.

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Arcade Box to Sandbox: The Evolution of 8 Video Games

Only a few games have a successful sequel, yet there are some that manage to make the generational leap from game console to game console, for decades.
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Urban Adventure Playgrounds: Cool Places Too Few Kids Play

Where was your absolutely favorite place to play as a kid? Few manage to find something quite so exciting as these strange free-for-all platforms for fun.
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Game Your Box: 40 Cool Gaming Console Mods & Case Hacks

Gaming takes skill. Your gaming console is like your beloved baby. These are 40 of the coolest gaming case mods made by hardcore gamers with great imaginations.
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Dark Tower: Decay Inside Africa’s Tallest Apartment Complex

30 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

ponte apartment context

Before a long descent into darkness, the cylindrical Ponte City Apartments began life as a luxurious tribute to growth and wealth in Johannesburg , filled with envy-worthy units looking out in all directions. But after years of decline and false restarts, what direction is next for the highest residential skyscraper on the continent?

dark tower spire detail

ponte apartment trash

As remarked in the film above by Philip Bloom, the transformation of this iconic 54-story, mixed-use tower in South Africa has been astonishing. “It really was icon of decadence … wealth and exuberance” with three-story units and Jacuzzi tubs – a “premier location in the city” for people “making a lot of cash.” As part of an exodus from the city center, rapid changes took place.

dark tower up down

The center of the circular plan looked excellent in theory – a way for light to enter the back side of apartments looking into the core. There were even plans for an indoor ski slope to accompany the various shops and eateries on the lower levels.

dark interior core views

In practice, it slowly became a kind of black hole filled with three stories of detritus at the bottom and marked by unwashed walls all the way up. It also developed a reputation for defenestrations – accidents, suicides and otherwise.

dark building exterior view

Investors just before the global financial crisis began to re-envision and rehabilitate the structure, but the renovations stopped as abruptly as the market crashed, leaving an ambiguous future for this iconic structure.

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Dark Tower Decay Inside Africas Tallest Apartment Complex

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Constant Motion: Open-Plan, Puzzle-Piece Apartment Design

19 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

open 12

A small cubic condo with windows on only one side hardly seems an obvious candidate for a complex and dynamic plan, but from concept through execution, this design embodies its creator’s and clients’ visions for space in motion.

open 11

open plan concept diagram

As the diagrams by designer Alex Bykov illustrate, the layout started with a central kitchen, acting as a modern-day hearth and center of activity around which the rest of the mostly-open rooms revolve.

open 14

open 15

open 13

The raised-level library area, framed in richly variegated plywood, feels like a cozy and separate space, but also remains an extension of the main volume. Its shelving shapes play into the puzzle theme that inspired the overall plan.

open 7

open 5

open 6

The steps leading up to this little library serve two purposes, acting as stairs but also forming a corner breakfast nook on the main floor – another one of many turns and angles throughout the project that add to its dynamism.

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Constant Motion Open Plan Puzzle Piece Apartment Design

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Zaha Hadid’s Apartment Block Overlooking NYC High Line

05 Sep

[ By Steph in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

Zaha Hadid High Line Apartments NYC 1

A glittering glass apartment block with volumes flowing into each other in dynamic stacked arrangements will be architect Zaha Hadid’s first building in New York City. Set to overlook the second section of the High Line, the city’s elevated park, the 11-story sculpted glass and steel development aims to draw in luxury buyers with a double-height lobby, private courtyards, a communal garden and residences measuring up to 5,500 square feet.

Zaha Hadid NYC High Line Apartments 2

The mid-rise apartment block will feature approximately 37 apartments, each with its own private terrace, 11-foot ceilings and state-of-the-art features. Located in Chelsea at 520 West 28th Street, the building will also offer a large roof terrace and an indoor pool and spa.

Zaha Hadid NYC High LIne Apartments 3
“Our design is an integration of volumes that flow into each other and, following a coherent formal language, create the sensibility of the building’s overall ensemble,” says Hadid. “With an arrangement that reinvents the spatial experience, each residence will have its own distinctive identity, offering multiple perspectives and exciting views of the neighborhood.”

Zaha Hadid NYC High Line Apartments 4

The creation of the High Line, which was formerly an abandoned section of elevated railway, has spurred a rash of new economic and real estate development in areas of the city that had slumped a bit. According to The New York Times, the High Line as generated $ 2 billion in private investment, including a number of other deluxe apartment buildings, art galleries, restaurants and boutiques.

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