In keeping with the developer’s brief, Urban Habitat predominantly used low-maintenance face brick. Although high-density apartment block architecture can often seem repetitive, use of plaster, paint and use of steel work break this building’s exterior façade. Advantageous use of the site’s step gradient allowed Urban Habitats to play with levels by ‘stepping’ the building’s blocks every second unit. This is further enhanced by the addition of differing roof design shapes and levels. Steel structures, attached to the façade, mirror the stepped roofing design and add an unusual slant to the building’s exterior.
The developer wanted to maximise the number of available units, thus each one is relatively small. However, each of the two bathrooms in these approximately 60 square meter units has natural ventilation through the creation of a deep service duct between each unit. In addition to ventilation, this duct allows for a serviceable area for the placement of geysers and other infrastructure, maximizing the available space.