Apartments

The site of this project had complex and stringent constraints. Due to various regulations, it was not possible to freely shape the building form, and among these, the most restrictive condition was the setback regulation. As a result, the building naturally recedes as it rises, creating terraces along the way. We considered this a good excuse to persuade the client to create an apartment with terraces. In Korea, balconies are generally assumed to be enclosed and incorporated into the interior space. However, the terraces resulting from the setback regulation are unavoidable.

The wall can be a compressed memory, a condensed memory of the process through which a mental wall is materialized. Through its very presence, it operates as a mechanism of visibility and invisibility. Walls are sometimes mental and sometimes physical, but in all cases, they are powerful. They possess the power to conceal and to reveal bodies, objects, and cities. The distinction between public and private life profoundly shapes behavior, clothing, and even the movements of the bodies.

Box in a Box. A refurbishing project with a dual stylistic code, conceived for an early 20th-century apartment in Milan. An apartment located on the third floor of a post-WWI bâtiment on Viale Beatrice d’Este in Milan has undergone a meticulous and unusual refurbishment by DDBA. The residence, featuring a typically bourgeois character, is distinguished by large French windows overlooking rows of poplars and the vibrantly colored façades of the residential buildings directly opposite, designed by Giordano Forti and Camillo Magni.

Implanted on a corner lot between two streets in the western part of São Paulo, the Pascoal Vita Building stands out for its striking geometry, softened by the gardens that surround the entire construction and establish a continuity with the surrounding landscape.

In the center of Nantes, the transformation of the former army barracks known as the Caserne Mellinet reflects contemporary urban challenges. Situated at the entrance of this neighborhood composed of six hamlets, the flats completed by Ramdam and Palast are part of the Chapus hamlet. This hamlet is the transitional urban feature linking the Saint-Donatien neighborhood and the heart of the barracks complex. Whilst respecting the intention of urban planners to create a coherent identity between the two areas, the project is first and foremost part of a powerful construction ambition of a wooden structure and mineral façades composed of plastered hempcrete.

After the pandemic, the elderly parents and their daughters, previously living in southern and northern Taiwan, began considering future care needs and decided to live together in Taipei. Located in a 40-year-old public housing complex, this 72-sqm apartment navigates two opposing conditions: the tranquil greenery of the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab to the south, and the bustle of a major commercial boulevard to the north. The low ceilings and original layout with three small bedrooms intensified the narrow proportions and the sense of enclosure. Moreover, iron window grilles and fixed AC units obstructed the openings, severely compromising natural light and ventilation.

After the pandemic, the elderly parents and their daughters, previously living in southern and northern Taiwan, began considering future care needs and decided to live together in Taipei. Located in a 40-year-old public housing complex, this 72-sqm apartment navigates two opposing conditions: the tranquil greenery of the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab to the south, and the bustle of a major commercial boulevard to the north. The low ceilings and original layout with three small bedrooms intensified the narrow proportions and the sense of enclosure. Moreover, iron window grilles and fixed AC units obstructed the openings, severely compromising natural light and ventilation.

Kaye is a new thirty-one-story building in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood comprising 324 apartments, hospitality-grade amenities on the ground, seventh, and thirty-second floors, a co-working space on the mezzanine, and commercial space at grade. Grzywinski+Pons designed both the building and all of the interiors, as well as much of the furniture, for our client, Skanska.