DESIGN NAME: RED APPLE RESIDENTIAL BUILDING
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Residential Building
INSPIRATION: In a place highlighted by its sense of contrast, with no historical background Red Apple represents a building with a past. A new old building which contains the opposites of its surrounding. A starting point is the idea of a residential factory, a building which represents the opposing ideas between old and new. An idea highlighted by the dominating material which represent the concept- the brick.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Red Apple acts as an abandoned factory, turned into a desired place for habitation. Characterized by the opposing ideas of old and new it is made of perforated brick shell. Following the irregular site gives it dynamic and character. Light chimneys perforate the building connecting inside and outside. The central staircase represents a light shaft, around which are the dwellings. The Residential factory unifies the advantages of past and present. It does not just fit its surroundings but delivers the lacking history, past and memories.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: Red Apple reflects the contradicting need of maximum personal individualizing and the necessity for a more homogeneous urban fabric. It has a standing out individuality and all of its 61 apartments are different. Through its dissolving boundaries the building is in a close interaction with its surroundings. It is an entire organism embedded in the neighborhood. All of its elements are subordinated to the whole. So it is a continuous urban fabric firmly connected with the existing.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: The project was part of a competition held in April 2010 in Sofia. Its construction period was between June 2011 and December 2012.
FITS BEST INTO CATEGORY: Architecture, Building and Structure Design
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: Brick is the main design material of the building but it is rather forgotten in Bulgaria. Therefore there was no sufficient know-how on its up-to-day implementation and it had to be reintroduced to the local seismic conditions. The 13 floors high building along with its brick facade is designed to surpass a 9 by Richter earthquake which required a very specific approach.
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: In plan the building is almost a triangle 30 by 30 meters with two more vertices on its longest side. The height is about 44 meters.
TAGS: Brick, Urban Factory, Context, Old-New, Residential, Intermediate Spaces
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: The building regulations are specific for this plot. The maximum volume allowed is about one sixth bigger than the maximum built area permitted if the storey is 3 meters high. This discrepancy is solved without losing neither area, nor volume, by freeing the surplus areas with 22 double height living rooms in the building.Their area is considered on the ground floor only and not in the void above. In such a way the design takes the maximum from regulations incorporating them in the concept.
CHALLENGE: Despite the socialist blocks from the 1970s Sofia is a medium-scale city. This new residential building however, contains 61 apartments. Such an amount of people living in one building inevitably leads to the decreasing of their sense of individuality. It is an important issue when designing multifamily residential buildings to preserve some sense of the uniqueness of the individual home and to keep the entity of the building.
ADDED DATE: 2015-02-23 16:51:37
TEAM MEMBERS (7) : Plamen Bratkov, Rossitza Bratkova, Nedko Nedev, Boyan Belchev, Nikolay Chatalbashev, Mila Petrova and Andrey Hodkevich
IMAGE CREDITS: Tsvetomir Dzhermanov/Main Image
Nedyalko Nedylakov/Optional Image 01
Nedyalko Nedylakov/Optional Image 02
Nedyalko Nedylakov/Optional Image 03
Nedyalko Nedylakov/Optional Image 04
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