Current design of apartment buildings is facing challenges of philosophy and form. Past approaches no longer sustain new demands and require innovative thinking. The need for a new outlook is propelled by fundamental changes that touch upon environmental, economic, cultural and social aspects that led to the writing of this book. The depletion of non-renewable natural resources and climate change are a few of the environmental challenges that prompted designers to reconsider conceptual approaches in favour of ones that promote a better suitability between buildings and their environments. Concepts that minimize the buildings carbon footprint, passive solar gain, net-zero structures and water harvesting system are some of the contemporary strategies that architects and builders are integrating into their thought processes and design. Increasing costs of material, labour, land and infrastructure have posed economic challenges with affordability being paramount among them. The need to do with less brings about concepts that include adaptable dwellings, and smaller-sized yet quality-designed housing. Social challenges are also drawing attention. As the 'baby-boom' generation plans now for retirement, housing an elderly population will take priority. Walkable communities, aging in place, live-work residences, and multigenerational living are some of the concepts considered. The book offers information on contemporary design concepts and illustrates them with plans and photographs of outstanding international examples.

An international survey of the most inventive contemporary apartment buildings, to inspire architects, developers, urban planners, and informed city dwellers

Various prestigious architects present their most recent creations for apartment buildings, from the most innovative and avant-garde proposals, to those that attempt to create spaces whose personalities adapt to their contents. Conventional vertical dwellings, buildings for specific groups and residential complexes share a common spirit: rigour, imagination and respect for both the per-sons who will occupy them and the environment in which they are located. The works of MVRDV, Satoshi Okada, Peter Lorenz and Archi-tectonics, to name just a few of the architects included in this book, provide stimulating answers, ingenious solutions, unexpected points of view and proposals that will without doubt influence the conception of residential architecture.

Modern Apartment Design provides guidelines to the design of modern apartment buildings as well as a summation of current cutting-edge practice in engineered timber construction. The book covers a brief history of apartment buildings around the world, with a broad outline of different types of apartment blocks. It has a strong focus on the design and actual construction of apartment buildings, especially those utilising mass timber, such as cross-laminated timber and laminated veneer lumber. It also features six Case Study chapters from industry-leading practitioners in the area, enabling best practice in architecture and engineering of these new apartment building types to be more widely understood and propagated worldwide. The fully illustrated, full-colour case studies span the globe and include: Clearwater Quay in Christchurch, New Zealand (Pacific Environments NZ); Wynyard Central East 2 in Auckland, New Zealand (Architectus); Dalton Works in London, UK (Waugh Thistleton Architects); Mjøstårnet, Brumunddal, Norway (Voll Arkitekter); Brock Commons Tallwood House student housing in Vancouver, Canada (Acton Ostry Architects); and Regensbergstrasse apartments in Zurich, Switzerland (Dreicon). The book will be of great interest to architects and architecture students.

The systematic development of building types is an important task in housing construction. A deeper understanding of the underlying building types is mandatory, both for individual designs and for the wider application and variation of tried-and-tested structures. The authors have developed an innovative, drawing-based approach for unfolding the potentials of several existing building types for the future of urban housing. The first part is dedicated to the courtyard house, in which the courtyard is used as a private outside living space. The second part deals with the popular form of the terraced house and discusses aspects of corner solutions or terraced developments as an urban design element. In the third part, the townhouse is discussed with view to variants such as single-story and apartment buildings, including aspects of privacy and public access, as well as living and working. Finally, the detached house type is considered in its potential to provide all-directional orientation of the living space. The array of solutions is presented consistently in floorplans and cross-sections drawn to scale. In a new introduction to this all-in-one compendium the authors discuss the implications of the typological approach for today's housing design.

The integration of nature in architecture is a key concern of sustainability. However, all too often sustainable design is reduced to improving the energetic performance of buildings and the ornamental application of natural green. Dense + Green explores new architectural typologies that emerge from the integration of green components such as sky terraces, vertical parks and green facades, in high-density buildings. The book describes green strategies in a comparison across different design tasks and climate conditions. In-depth case studies on the most relevant building types, consistently presented with analytical drawings made exclusively for this book, are complemented by expert essays that demonstrate the current paradigm shift in the sustainable urban environment. From the Contents: • Dense + Green Building Types, by Thomas Schröpfer, architect, Singapore University of Technology and Design • Dense + Green Building Technology, by Atelier Ten, environmental design consultants and building services engineers, New York, NY • Dense + Green Landscape Design, by Herbert Dreiseitl, landscape architect, Atelier Dreiseitl/Rambøll Liveable Cities Lab, Überlingen/Singapore/Portland, OR • Dense + Green Botanical Design, by Jean Yong, plant eco-physiologist, Singapore University of Technology and Design • Dense + Green Urbanism, by Kees Christiaanse, urban planner, ETH Zurich • 25 in-depth case studies from Europe, Asia and the USA • Practice Reports by Foster + Partners, WOHA, Ken Yeang, MVRDV and others

Creating layered living spaces in apartment buildings houses one of the most important and multifaceted tasks for contemporary architects worldwide.