| NEWS | DESIGN | BUILDING | DESIGN TOOLS | ENVIRONMENT | CULTURE |
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Grande Bibliotheque du Quebec | |
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Down Under Houses | |
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Buenos Aires Row | |
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Buenos Aires Row Located on a 35-foot- (10.4-meter-) wide lot, the development layers two-story rowhouses into two compact blocks. One building faces the public street, and the other, a small garden to the rear of the lot. Each building consists of six apartments, stacked three on three, with the top floor providing terraces and swimming pools to the units on the upper level. Tectonic Clarity Pilotis support the building above the ground. This generates a sense of airiness, and expresses the transmission of loads from cast-in-place concrete partition walls above to a foundation plate below. A finely articulated lightweight steel circulation tower provides a foil to the massive structure of the building itself. In keeping with its modernist vocabulary, the project's elevations simply express the spatial and programmatic arrangements behind them. The building's outer faces consist of a layer of glazing opening onto suspended steel-frame balconies, with wood slat decks and an open-mesh guardrail system. Vertical screens separate the balconies and map the building's bearing walls onto its elevations. The vertical screens are also intended to provide filtered daylight and reduce solar heat gains through the east- and west-facing glazing. Public, Private, Front, Back The pilotis not only lend an airiness to the building, they contribute to a pleasing gradation of the entry sequence from street to unit front doors. Residents pass through a shared open court, which the pilotis and ceiling plane define, to a vertical circulation tower consisting of a stair-wrapped elevator in lightweight steel, across an open-air bridge, and onto a landing from which the unit doors open. Historically, a strong sense of front and back typifies the rowhouse type, allowing for public and private zones of activity. Here, the entry sequence turns the interior circulation zone into the public "front," and the outward-facing elevations into private "backs." The windows of rooms fronting the circulation zone are arranged in solid walls to prevent views into private space across the 13-foot (4-meter) gap, while living rooms with completely transparent end walls enjoy longer views from the building's outer faces. Viewed from outside, the design observes modernist orthodoxy in avoiding any differentiation of front and back. Its success as a place to live, however, relies on a strong differentiation of front and back when experienced from within. Small-House Living On the first and third floors, the front door opens to a hall beside an eat-in kitchen. A switch-back stair separates the kitchen from the living and dining area at the back. On the second and fourth floors, bedrooms look out to front and back, with stairs and bathroom between them. Cross ventilation and a connection to the outdoors on two sides of the units make them function like small houses. The rowhouse type ordinarily achieves densities in the range of 19 to 23 units per acre (22 to 57 units per hectare). This project quadruples that, yet retains the residents' ability to open their front door to the open air. The project's developer marketed the units at mid-range prices comparable to standard apartments. They sold immediately to young urbanites who appreciate the building's functionality, amenities, and aesthetic. What this says to Canda is that the design "understands the way the city tissue works here" and takes a successful housing type a step further. >>> Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum... Katharine Logan designs and writes to further a more meaningful and sustainable built environment.
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