In housing design the demands of individuality are contrasting with the common practice of rational repetition and packing of units that in the best case create a larger whole but usually makes for anonymous repetitive patterns.

What needs to be mutiplied and what can change to address other needs?

Large blocks are able to achieve a critical mass or density which can support public/social facilities. If well designed, they can also induce a sense of community. The masterplan of this development provided an ideal setting to discuss these issues.

From an extremely tight space schedule (x amounts of units) and a detailed wish lists of the future residents we opted for a deck access solution to minimize circulation cores. However only a maximum of 5 flats share one stair/lift on each level. With the deck platform towards North-West, all flats open up towards the South and East with individual balconies.

From these alignments we developed a pattern that enables the units to be constructed from prefab elements and allows a flexible division. Residents could be allocated by an algorithm that incorporates multiple wishes and demands. In fact the design is showing just one variation of many.

This rectangular base net is offset by the introduction of external landscape surfaces.

A 2-storey underground parking is accompanied by multiple semipublic facilities such as a community hall, a creche and shared washing facilities.

 

The overlap of base axis and external surface pattern produces a differentiated grid