How to the city can be transformed by an apartment interior and the life within
Can residents, in the way they inhabit and make use of their apartment in an urban apartment block influence the image of the city, of its character, and its atmosphere? Can the spatial concept of an apartment block, its siting in the location, its design, and its exterior image effect a change: firstly, on its immediate surroundings; and later, in the wider urban space?
What power does this ‘singular object’ then have, so that it, as an exclusively private residential building, stimulates the development of the area of the city in which it is situated? And what is its relation towards existing houses in the neighbourhood? Does it, by its very appearance-existence, raise the quality of surrounding buildings, initiate tendencies for their restoration refurbishment, that render the area more desirable; can it stimulate the dynamic development of the area?
So far we have only touched on the building, but the building itself is not enough. Its character and the atmosphere created and evoked are shaped by those that live there. The ‘power of the singular object’ depends on them, their families, their lifestyles; how and to what extent they interact with their neighbours, to what extent they open the interior of their homes to the views afforded by the surroundings.
Do the views into/onto their habitation provoke them to shield themselves from the outdoors with double-layered curtains, are their blinds drawn tight the entire day? Or are their characters projected through the building membrane and out into the urban surroundings and further still, into the wider city view by the colour and intensity of the artificial light in the apartment, the interior walls, the colour and materiality of their curtains?
Can residents of the Gradaška apartment block – taking a specific case in point – via the interiors of their apartments and their lifestyles, have an impact on the increasingly urban character of Ljubljana’s Krakovo district, on this protected suburban enclave at the edge of the city centre?
The Gradaška block houses twelve high-standard private apartments. It lies at the edge of a protected enclave, and at the same time, enjoys ample views of the castle and the city centre. This unusual edge condition, which makes both the general public and the city authorities resistant to any attempt to transform it, generates a response in the way the building is designed and the visual effects it seeks to achieve.
Here two design decisions were applied that would shape the spatial organisation of the building. One was the exclusion of terraces and the creation of an open, glazed facade, treating the interior space as an outdoor space, whereby the living room becomes a surrogate open terrace space. Given the different views from each of the apartments and the different relationships they establish with their immediate surroundings, the second design decision involved the creation of different spatial relationships within the building’s 12 apartments, that would also extend into the spatial organisation of the building as a whole.
In order to achieve this, a particular spatial relationship between the living room – either double-height or 1.5 height – and the rest of the apartment was imposed. This displacement makes each unit different from the other eleven, and produces a variety of apartment types that range from New York-style lofts to Paris-like studios. This heterogeneity is clearly demonstrated in the development of the section and readily perceived by passers-by on the street.
The thin layer of the facade (the envelope) acts as a mediator, not only between the interior and the exterior (the actual function of the facade) but also between the context of the building (its situation) and the micro-cosmos of the units inside the building. It marks the shift between the rural and the metropolitan living territory of the interior – what we term the ‘switching surface’. The different urban lifestyles of the interiors are externalized through the glass surfaces; and the context is simultaneously projected onto the facade. What is reflected on the facade of the building is largely the same as the view from the interior. Residents identify their building with the facade reflection of the reality of their surroundings.
When dealing with a residential building, you’re dealing with the notion of identity: ‘this is my house, this is where I live’. Identification is represented in the switching surface effect, and materialized in the individual character of each apartment, where both the spatial organization is unique and the exterior views are different. A building like this can be understood metaphorically on different levels. The glass produces a camouflage effect, reflecting the surrounding environment of trees, cars, orchards, etc. At the same time, the massive built volume corresponds to other large apartment buildings in the area and further inside the city. In one sense it can be understood as generic and in another, as generative, eschewing a type of urban living occupies the fine line between the city and its outer limits.
The switching surface derives from an interest in exposure as a strategy for revealing a possible multiplicity of identities in these ‘fertile surroundings’ around Ljubljana’s city centre. There are no buffer spaces in this building, not even a garden. Instead, a direct and in some sense contradictory relationship between the very private and the very public is established. This contradiction operates as a ‘generator of urban living’, and – if successful – the building becomes an example of the lifestyle that can be enjoyed on the edge of the city centre.
Ultimately, the final switching surface effect will be effected through the personalizing of these vertical lofts, when people move in and begin organizing and decorating; a personalization communicated via the switching surface projected outward. Only thin metal shades regulate the exposure of the private out into the public urban and beyond.
Author: Bostjan Vuga
Illustration: Maša Kozjek
