Description

The apartment tower opens in two directions to benefit from fresh breezes from the sea to the west and the harbor to the east. However, these orientations also expose the apartments to the hot afternoon sun and the monsoon rains. The tower is therefore wrapped in a protective layer of terraces; they are cut out from the volume at the corners and offer each apartment an exterior space on an urbane scale. Moreover, the position of the “cut-outs” alternates from floor to floor, thus defining the sculptural appearance of the tower. All 32 apartments occupy the entire depth of the volume and are wrapped around the central circulation core on three sides. All the large units occupy two stories, while the remaining apartments are single-story in the interior and only reach across two stories in the terrace area. All units are organized into split-levels, which facilitate uninterrupted sightlines throughout the interior. The differing apartment types are interlaced within the staggered levels that result from these split-levels.

In the largest units, the entrance area leads directly into a generous L-shaped living room wrapped around the double-height terrace. The stairs connect the living room to the individual rooms above and also to both levels behind the opposite facade. The bathrooms and bedroom loggias at the facade level form a buffer to the outside. There is also a two-story space in the interior. With its formal analogy to the terraces, this space seems to question its own placement within the interior – the entire construct appears as a light, open web of levels, connections, and spatial relationships, that run through the building and penetrate boundaries.

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Originally published in: Oliver Heckmann, Friederike Schneider (eds.), Floor Plan Manual Housing, fourth revised and expanded edition, Birkhäuser, 2011.