Book Description

Whether in the public or private sector, apartment buildings are a relatively modern answer to the problem of housing, a topic that is intimately linked to the complex evolution of the customs and constructive experiences of richer countries. Since the beginning of the century there has been a heated debate on this topic in an effort to specify and understand the most appropriate scenario for life and the new forms of coexistence. Among the architectures that have been built since then, the apartment constitutes the most difficult habitation unit, an enclosure that may become a bare and sombre capsule, in which a rigid compartmentation often makes the adaptation to each user's specific necessities and the personal behaviours of coexistence very difficult. This book makes a full analysis of this debate through the study of a series of apartment buildings by architects of international fame, with rigorous proposals that combine a careful use of brickwork, warm wooden wrappings and severe glass skins on the outside. Under the diversity of the projects that we present, one can detect a common effort to design interiors that combines a rational approach with the search for good illumination and an intimate, comfortable and well-ventilated atmosphere.