After two decades of living in North America, I was hit by the realization that the communist-era Prague apartment of my early childhood might have been the most luxurious place I’ve ever lived. Although many of my later Toronto and Montreal flats had more opulent lobbies, finishes, amenities, and landscaping, the simple, prefabricated Czech panel building boasted a dual aspect suite, welcoming sunlight — and cross-ventilation — from two sides of the building. In Canada and the United States, this type of home is a rarity; one that fetches a hefty premium.
Why are new North American apartments so different than their international counterparts? While our restrictive single-family zoning codes and byzantine urban design guidelines dominate much of the urban discourse, the nature of Canadian and American building codes shapes the built environment in profound yet surprising ways. Specifically, strict requirements for dual egresses on multi-unit dwellings translate to buildings served by double-loaded corridors. As Seattle-based architect Michael Eliason , “It is this regulation that causes our multifamily housing to vary dramatically from the rest of the world.”
“Outside of the U.S. and Canada, this requirement is largely non-existent,” Eliason writes. My Prague apartment was a single-entry “point access block,” a compact seven-storey stack of apartments served by a central elevator and staircase. Indeed, Eliason observes that the North American “hotel-like plan with a corridor down the middle and units on either side — was incredibly rare in Europe, largely reserved for student and worker housing.” On this side of the Atlantic, a movement to reform building code requirements for two exit stairwells per floor is , while a modest but growing number of residential projects are finding creative alternatives to double-loaded corridors.
Outside of Boston, for example, a three-story cohousing project by architects French 2D making for light-filled, space-saving interiors. And in Montreal, the recently completed Cité Angus II apartment complex is an elegant hybrid of North American mid-rise design and innovative outdoor circulation inspired by local vernacular.
Designed by local practice and situated on an irregularly shaped 38,000-square-metre site next to Jean-Duceppe Park, the two-building Cité Angus II is home to 88 condominiums, including large and multi-level suites that cater to the families often pushed out of Montreal’s urban core. What’s more, both volumes feature dual aspect apartments facing the inner courtyard and the surrounding streets. The key to the design? You can’t miss it.
At the heart of the courtyard, a copper-coloured spiral staircase gives every apartment a secondary outdoor egress, allowing a compact elevator bank and staircase to serve each of the buildings. (While some front doors face an indoor hallway, most dual aspect suites emerge onto an outdoor corridor, which connects to both the spiral stair and an indoor elevator bank and exit stair.)
Where French 2D’s Boston area complex avoids the the U.S. double-egress requirement by maintaining a three-storey height — the maximum allowed for a single exit under the national code, which is slightly more permissive than its Canadian equivalent — Ædifica’s design for Cité Angus II demonstrates a creative way to meet legal standards in a denser urban setting. For most of the larger homes, however, leaving the front door means stepping out into the elements. But is it worth braving the cold?
Like Boston, Montreal is one of North America’s coldest cities, known for its harsh, snowy winters. Even here, however, the trade-off pays dividends, allowing expansive, livable suites framed by expansive fenestration on two sides. Open the windows and fresh air flows right through. What’s more, the spiral staircase deftly nods to Montreal’s older urban fabric, which is characterized by the vernacular of outdoors stairs. It’s an ingenious solution which simultaneously demonstrates and subverts the prescriptive confines of North American urbanism.
The post appeared first on .
