Research Topic #1 - Housing Prototypes

The new use that is most amenable to a mixed-use of commercial on the ground floor and multi-family residential on the second and third floors. I began my research by investigating different housing types for multi-family use. I first looked at data, site & home design and neighborhood amenities for low-rise apartments.


After researching basic information concerning this building type, I began to investigate different housing types. From the book Apartment Footprints edited by Roger Sherwood, I acquired several examples of different housing units. The first is Alvar Aalto's Interbau 1957 Hansarviertel Apartments in Berlin Germany. This an example of the courtyard housing type. This type was adapted from the courtyard house to a multi-family use. It features a central "gathering" space in which other spaces are arranged around. This central space acts as a central courtyard.

This typically results in units that are of the same size. Therefore, families that require larger (or smaller) units are not accomodated very easily.

The second housing type that I researched was a 'skip stop' organization which arranges the units around interior courtyards. The apartments known as Walden 7 by Taller de Arquitectura located in Barcelona, Spain are an excellent example of this type. Stairs and narrow walkways connect different levels together. This unit design allows for a variety of sizes from small single room flats to larger maisonettes. These units are typically distinctive and two story layouts are available.

The Rue Franklin Apartments in Paris, France are an example of flexible planning. These units are unique in design. However, the major spaces are typically connected in a french enfilade arrangement.

Units of this type usually require more square footage which means fewer units are available, leading to higher cost per unit.

After investigating this source I turned my research to specific architects that have addressed housing issues and types. I initially went to Le Corbusier in a paper entitled, "A Typological Housing Design: The Case Study of Quartier Fruges in Pessac by Le Corbusier". After the turn of the 20th century he was influenced by the industrial revolution and searched for ways to simplify or automated housing design. Corbusier's typological housing design allowed for rational prototypes using the golden proportion. Quartier Fruges in Pressac, France gave him the opportunity to test many of his theories. He developed five housing types for this project. They are the "staggered" type, the "Z-formation", the arcade", the "skyscrapper" type, and the "free-standing" type. This allowed for a variety of units based on the same proportions. Le Corbusier wanted a "set of rules to organize visual forms on both the exterior and the interior of the structure."

Corbusier used the abstract concept of 'cellules" to desgin low-rise clustered housing. Jose' Luis Sert expanded on this idea in later years with his design of the Eastwood Complex on Roosevelt Island in New York. His use of 'cluster' housing and open courtyards allowed residents to have magnificent views of Manhattan.