Article fromA&B issue05|2023
How to shape good residential architecture?
When designing residential architecture, we think about future residents. We want everyone to feel at home. We ask ourselves what is needed to make it so. Despite our many years of practice, we still find new answers. By listening to the needs of future users, we are constantly learning how to meet them. We are inspired by the surroundings of the designed buildings, so we like to refer to the history of the place, combining tradition with modernity and striving for harmony with the environment. We illustrate this with an example taken from the Perspektywa estate in Gdansk, where we shaped urban villas and townhouses, preserving the scale of the existing buildings, located at the intersection of Legnicka and Powstańców Warszawskich streets. The masses and details of the newly designed buildings reflect — in a modern way — the characteristic elements found in the existing urban tissue.
Perspektywa housing estate | Gdańsk | proj.: S.A.M.I. Architekci
photo: © Euro Styl
They can be observed, for example, in the size of the building masses, the shaping of gable walls with the characteristic detail of chimneys or in the details of window glyphs. It is important for us to emphasize the qualities of the surroundings, such as the hills or the location itself on them, with a beautiful view, to which we open the buildings we design by cascading them. Each building must also meet the assumptions we follow when designing apartments and common spaces. It is important for us to design functional apartments, with good proportions of rooms that will meet the requirements of different users. We strive to shape them in such a way that, with minor arrangements, they are comfortable for everyone. We also devote a lot of attention to the design of common spaces, which by their character should harmonize with the architecture of the buildings.
Perspektywa housing estate | Gdańsk | proj.: S.A.M.I. Architekci
photo: © Euro Styl
We strive to combine tradition with modernity, also with regard to the needs of future tenants. The traditional values that allow us to call a building home lead to further insights. We associate home with a place that is safe, welcoming, solid, comfortable, conducive to recreation and integration in a natural setting. We aim to eliminate car traffic inside the estates we design. We prepare transportation for pedestrians and cyclists, inspired by the idea of a fifteen-minute city, which is why we design areas for stores and services in the first floors of buildings. Thinking about the future use of space, we write a scenario in which we invite residents to various forms of activity: to walk, for example, along a pedestrian route designed between buildings, to integrate and relax in spaces planned for these needs, such as a square delineated by the walls of existing and new buildings, inviting them tostop among the greenery incorporated into its three-dimensional floor, a pocket park, playgrounds or a path leading to the top of the escarpment, where we are designing a viewing platform from which you can admire the city and the surrounding greenery.
Perspektywa estate | Gdańsk | proj.: S.A.M.I. Architekci
photo: © Euro Styl
We showcase what is important to us in our projects. A good example, which is illustrated by the published photographs, is the Perspektywa estate in Gdansk, designed by us.
Perspektywa estate | Gdansk | proj.: S.A.M.I. Architekci
photo: © Euro Styl
Anna Kalbarczyk
S.A.M.I. Architects
