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The Eternal, Essential Apartment

Apartments. Flats. Units. Whatever you call them, these individual dwellings typically contained in multistory buildings have been around for over a millennium. Their ubiquity adds vibrancy to the urban spaces that define places like Tokyo, New York City, or Rome, destinations known for their unique cityscapes that are popular with residents and visitors alike. So, let’s celebrate and praise apartments for the essential role they play in shaping residential architecture throughout history.

One example of a multi-residence building from the ancient world was the Roman insula, or “apartment block.” While not as grand or luxurious as the domus (a private, single-family townhouse), multi-story insulae were important structures in crowded Roman cities. In a time before elevators, ground-floor and lower-level apartments were the most desirable. But while the idea that a Roman insula could rise as many as ten-to-twelve stories high may have taken hold in popular culture, anthropologist Glenn R. Storey points out that historical evidence doesn’t back up this assumption. He explains that this view “comes mostly from anecdotal written descriptions about Rome and other Roman cities” and that the “archaeological evidence for tall buildings in the Roman world is in reality very sparse.”  Most material evidence places insulae at around four-to-five stories tall. The ruins of Case a Giardino in Ostia, Italy, supports this, as do the remains of other structures, such the Insula dell’Ara Coeli, within Rome itself.

Spinning the globe a bit, we arrive at the ancient city of Teotihuacan, outside present-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan was full of apartment compounds at its peak. The compounds were an essential part of Teotihuacan’s urban fabric, allowing a population of up to 200,000 people to live compactly within the city. While these may have looked a bit different than what we think of as apartments today, evidence shows that these structures “generally consist[ed] of several rooms at slightly different levels, arranged around open spaces (courtyards, refuse areas, and light wells) that serve[d] as places for ritual, rainwater collection, partial refuse disposal, and light provision,” explains archaeologist Linda R. Manzanilla. It’s believed that these apartments were shared by those either connected through kinship or through occupation.

In more recent times, apartments have been used as tools to clean-up and revitalize a city’s urban landscape. Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s urban plan for Paris, initiated in 1853, is a well-cited example of this. Hired by Napoléon III, Haussmann was granted wide authority to redesign Paris in his vision, as many—particularly those in power—found the city far too crowded and dirty. He widened the streets, making grand boulevards lined with the iconic “Haussmann buildings.” Standing as tall as six stories, these large structures with mansard roofs provided modern apartments while, along with the broad streets, gave Paris a visual unity—along with giving ample subject matter to the Impressionists for their paintings!

Robin Hood Gardens, East London. Getty

In the twentieth century, modern architects took on the task of designing apartments for the “new world” emerging after the destruction of World War II. Swiss French architect Le Corbusier designed Unité d’Habitation in Marseille, France. The Brutalist Robin Hood Gardens, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson, went up in East London. Across the globe, Kisho Kurakawa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower took shape in Tokyo’s Ginza neighborhood. All three designs adhered to modernist principles, using concrete as the main building material and rejecting the highly ornate styles that had dominated architectural design for centuries.

In the twenty-first century, even as we continue to build larger and taller structures, architecture needs to respond to the climate crisis and other evolving environmental factors. Mass-timber construction is emerging as one of the solutions. For instance, the Canadian province of British Columbia has “wood first” policy, writes Michael Green. Architects of public buildings “have to consider the use of wood first and effectively prove why they can’t use wood in the building design in order to proceed.” And it’s making its way into apartment buildings as well. Ascent MKE is a twenty-five-story hybrid mass-timber apartment structure that opened in 2022 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At the moment, Ascent is the tallest mass-timber structure in the world, beating out Mjøstårnet in Brumunddal, Norway, which opened to great acclaim in 2020.

Even though construction materials and visual styles have changed over the centuries, the apartment itself remains the same: a structure that houses many, allowing for density and flexibility in urban residential spaces.

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Will we see the first storm of the year this week?

Get ready for more of this (Picture: Ben Perry/Shutterstock)

A ‘major’ change to our weather is coming on Thursday, with the Met Office warning of heavy rain and gusts of up 80mph.

The freezing and weird weather currently hitting the United States is due to impact us too, which could potentially mean the first named storm of the season is on the way.

A large pool of freezing air over parts of North America is generating a big contrast in temperatures across the continent, which is strengthening the jet stream allowing deep low pressure systems to develop.

These lows will be steered across the Atlantic by the high winds of the jet stream – and the upshot of this is that it’s time to find your umbrella.

Here is what you need to know.

What will the weather be like this week?

Yellow warnings for high winds are in place from midnight on Friday until noon on Saturday, covering the north west of the UK including Northern Ireland.

Coastal areas will take a particular battering, with gusts of 70 to 80mph possible, but inland could still see gusts of 50 to 60mph, so people have been warned to secure their property and any loose items such as bins, garden furniture, trampolines, tents, sheds, and fences.

Yellow warnings for wind are in place on Friday and Saturday (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

For the next couple of days, there will be gloomy weather in general, but Thursday will bring the most dramatic change as heavy rain moves in.

‘North Wales and Northwest England are expected to see the highest accumulations where 20-30mm could fall over the hills,’ forecasters said, while there could be some snow over the Scottish mountains.

The jet stream, powerful air currents around 30,000ft up, is intensifying and is due to quickly get even stronger in a phenomenon called ‘explosive cyclogenesis’ on Thursday.

This sounds pretty violent, and it will indeed prompt potentially the strongest winds of the year so far once they reach the UK.

Met Office meteorologist Chris Almond said: ‘A very deep area of low pressure will bring a very unsettled, potentially disruptive, spell of weather to the UK through Friday and into Saturday.

‘Winds will begin to strengthen on Thursday night with the peak gusts forecast through Friday in Northern Ireland and western Scotland. The wind will also be accompanied by heavy rain bringing some unpleasant conditions to end the week.

‘We have issued a Yellow weather warning for wind, and with several days before the impactful weather, the forecast details are likely to be fine-tuned during the week, so stay tuned to your local forecast and keep up to date with Met Office warnings.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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