In 2018, DOM.RF, launched, together with Strelka, the Competiton for Standard Housing and Residential Development Concept with the aim of developing residential projects on an urban scale through alternative housing typologies. The competition focus was on desiging new apartment layouts (from studios to four-bedroom apartments) and ensuring urban and spatial quality. Buildings should meet sustainability criteria and should be divided into types of low, medium and high height.
Our effort aims at finding balance and beauty in city fabric. We believe in the importance of having richly activated streets on pedestrian-level and on the joy of unexpected meetings and any other kind of urban social interactions – yet, we do not seek those qualities in any sort of emulation of the medieval city fabric, but in relatively small, porous and intertwined city blocks and avantgarde architecture. The design explores both peripherical sidewalks and the blocks’ interiority – providing both urban, fast-paced and quieter, more bucolic path alternatives. A low, linear construction connects the residential buildings, helping shape legible spaces within the block while providing room for commercial and public activities that are essential complements to the residences. Above it, the residents find abundant condominium terraces for sunbathing and friendly gatherings. Greenery plays an important role, not being used as mere focal points or decoration, but as an integral part of the landscape, without overcoming the essentially urban and active essence of the proposal.
As for architecture, the composition respects each building’s specific plastic expression and material qualities at the same time as it creates specific identities to each urban block by subtle manipulations on the arrangement of the elements. Our proposal for a mixed concrete and timber structure stands for a more logical usage of renewable, local materials. The plans are radically flexible, using the facades as systems not only for illumination and ventilation, but also for storage, desks and counters solutions. Wet areas are linearly disposed, rationalizing the construction and leaving broad, free zones for the main spaces of the apartments, granting not only flexibility for layout changes within the units but also for entire pavements reorganizations, allowing the buildings to support demand changes on much longer terms.
