A rather special apartment building design by SimpleTwig Architecture.llc, the concept focuses on making the most of the apartment quality, from the moment one steps off the elevator to the moment one sits down on their sofa, the design seeks to maximize living space while minimizing other spaces without compromising quality living.
This article explores the basic layout of the entire apartment floor plan level, which will be supplemented by images of the actual units tomorrow, since we have so much to share on this project. This article also corresponds to two additional articles, one on the parking facilities, and the other on the retail, garden and street level planning of the project. All together, this is how one should make a fully integrated project that makes the most of tenant spaces, provides the community with a special building and provides the owner with a building that is easy to build, maintain and sustain.
With two 2 bedroom apartments, five 1 bedroom apartments and one studio apartment per floor, this building offers a cross-section of dwelling types making it most suitable to this particular neighborhood. Together, the 8 units per floor times the 5 floors gives this neighborhood 40 more apartments, along with retail space, community space and amenities like laundry, a gym, bicycle storage and a parking garage.
Located on the corner, surrounded by like height buildings, we chose to give the building a slight rotation, to help it stand out, to preserve the remnants of the theater, and to provide a public space for pedestrians. In this way, this building creates something special for the neighborhood as a ‘give back’ making it all the more a proud feature of the community. The lobby, as mentioned, doubles as a community gathering location for small events, it acting as a passage to the lush garden beyond.
The typical floor lobby has a special acoustical treatment that will also stand the wear and tear of traffic. The center of the hall is porcelain tile, very durable and inexpensive to install and maintain, while the edges are carpet, situated near the wall to absorb reflected sound helping to keep the hallways quiet and not echo chambers.
Both stairs have a large glass window, to make them feel safe to users and to encourage their use, lowering the maintenance and electrical demand on the elevator and landlord. Each stair is capped with a skylight and connects to the roof terrace.
Because of the unique shape of the building footprint, there is the opportunity to provide corner windows in several locations, which we take full advantage of. Here the corner 2 bedroom has a modest living room overlooking the intersection and in return providing the neighborhood with a interesting form to admire.
The typical bedroom comes with two narrow windows situated adjacent to their side walls, thus allowing light to illuminate the room better as light reflects off the surfaces. Each unit is separated by block walls for both fire and sound insulation, keeping each unit quiet, private and safe.
The apartments, which we will cover in a September 11, 2017 article, are dressed in a variety of flavors, to keep the building units interesting and varied. Above is a strong wood floor balanced with blue tones and whites.
There are two entrances into the building for tenants, from the Parking Garage on the lower level, and the Main entrance on the main street, close to shopping, the metro and city buses.
View of the Garage Lobby at the lower level. See the Garage article for more information.
Floor plan of the main tenant entrance, on the 1st floor. It is large, bright, airy to ensure that every tenant feels welcome when they come home. Please review the Retail article for more information.
CONCLUSION
We hope that taking in all the articles it becomes clear that designing a building properly requires the shaping of hundreds of puzzle pieces until they all fit together seamlessly. While we have not shown the facade component, structural component, the roof terrace component, or how utilities and other amenities are integrated, they have received the same scrutiny as every other component. In fact, this entire building is designed on the brick and block module to ensure that no cutting of bricks or concrete blocks (a fireproof, security and sound mitigation element of the project) will be required. This difficult to achieve but highly effective element will make the construction of the building proceed faster than both the Contractor or Owner will expect, allowing the building to be occupied sooner and ensuring its financial success.
This project is a Quality Housing project, thus by code providing amenities, like a window in each hallway for light and ventilation, that many projects do without.