Apartment Living.

Architecture, High Density Homes - by Tiffany Jade

231 Smith Street, Fitzroy by NEOMETRO™. Photography by Derek Swalwell.

28th September, 2022.

Just as the clothes we wear express how we want to be perceived, the homes we cultivate are de facto portraits of our souls. In Australia, apartment living has historically been viewed as a small scale living canvas with spatial qualities that coax one of two visual expressions — overabundance and ornamentation or a carefully editing curation of pieces — yet as apartment design come ever closer to reinstating some of the qualities of a single family home, our expectations on them have begun to change.

In New York, the apartments at 740 Park Avenue have long been accepted to be the city’s most venerable, luxurious and powerful address. In Berlin, the civic quality of apartments has cultivated a sense of community that transcends the trials and tribulations of history. In Japan, the smallest of apartments in the most central locations in Tokyo are preferred with lifestyles adapting accordingly and huge swathes of living taking place outside their walls. In Australia, the notion of apartments that meet the best of both worlds by retaining grand scale living while maintaining a strong activation of their neighbourhood is beginning to slowly take hold.

Grand proportions at 740 Park Avenue, New York.

A Tokyo micro-apartment demonstrates that location is everything when al but work and sleep happens elsewhere.

As Australia experiences something of a reset on our collective ideas on what denotes a home after the pandemic, apartment design is undergoing a metamorphosis. Fusing the qualities of a single family home with the amenity of traditional multi-residential living, a new living experience is emerging that draws on global precedents.

9 Wilson Ave by NEOMETRO™ consciously activates its public realm.

George Corner by NEOMETRO™. Photography by Derek Swalwell.

Location still reigns supreme, with apartments largely concentrated around those premium neighbourhoods that mediate between grand heritage and shoebox stacks of homes. Competing with the price points of premium properties however are more and more whole-floor apartment models that tout inclusions such as direct-lifting, customisable home automation, security, longevity and expansive proportions that mean no compromise is necessary on large furniture items and personal space. Interior design is moving away from the clean white box and into closer accord with those fixtures, materials and layouts that are more traditionally domestic allowing for the rooms to wear in to the patterns and experiences of living as time goes by.

Charm, warmth and scale converge in this Berlin apartment. Image courtesy of Apartamento.

So, if living in an apartment no longer means extreme downsizing or loosing access to private outdoor spaces large enough to accomodate an afternoon of gardening and the benefits of green outlooks; if it means maintaining an intrinsic link to a community that has been a consistent backdrop; if it allows for walkability to nearby social and cultural hotspots while ensuring privacy and quietude is meticulously upheld; is it not a surprise that apartments are coming to compete with a market they have historically been at opposite ends of the housing model spectrum from?

Words | Tiffany Jade