As nearly three-quarters of Canadians say non-profit and co-op housing could tackle the country’s deepening housing crisis, experts suggest these solutions could also help combat climate change.
I disagree. The problem is the construction regulations that require buildings of more than x stories to have two staircases per floor. This leads to poor design architecture with small units with no ventilation. Also we don’t need 45 storey condo buildings either. 4-6 storeys can be plenty to increase density in some surrounding neighborhoods.
If there’s nothing stopping me from cramming more shoebox units in place of that second staircase you let me remove, I will do just that and pocket the margins.
BTW, my building has two staircases per floor, with 10 1400sqft units per floor, with fine ventilation. It was built before I was born.
But yes about the 4-6 rises. Even a bit higher should be fine, as long as complexities are kept low.
It gives more options to customize layout. Removing the second staircase also removes the need for a hallway all the way through the middle between staircases. Since bedrooms need windows, removing the staircase also opens up space to add 1-2 more bedrooms per floor. Part of the issue with the hallway and 2 stairs is you get a corner unit on each one and everything in between gets just one outside wall. Making a bigger building footprint doesn’t help a lot because the floor area increases more than the wall space(which you need to put windows so your apartment doesn’t feel like a dungeon. Which is why apartments tend to be long and narrow, or sometimes wrapped around a central courtyard.
I read somewhere about North American vs European apartments, particularly the smaller 2-4 floor/3-4 units per floor ones, and the European ones tended to have a smaller footprint, but more wall space and more practically usable space than the North American designs.
I disagree. The problem is the construction regulations that require buildings of more than x stories to have two staircases per floor. This leads to poor design architecture with small units with no ventilation. Also we don’t need 45 storey condo buildings either. 4-6 storeys can be plenty to increase density in some surrounding neighborhoods.
If there’s nothing stopping me from cramming more shoebox units in place of that second staircase you let me remove, I will do just that and pocket the margins.
BTW, my building has two staircases per floor, with 10 1400sqft units per floor, with fine ventilation. It was built before I was born.
But yes about the 4-6 rises. Even a bit higher should be fine, as long as complexities are kept low.
It gives more options to customize layout. Removing the second staircase also removes the need for a hallway all the way through the middle between staircases. Since bedrooms need windows, removing the staircase also opens up space to add 1-2 more bedrooms per floor. Part of the issue with the hallway and 2 stairs is you get a corner unit on each one and everything in between gets just one outside wall. Making a bigger building footprint doesn’t help a lot because the floor area increases more than the wall space(which you need to put windows so your apartment doesn’t feel like a dungeon. Which is why apartments tend to be long and narrow, or sometimes wrapped around a central courtyard.
I read somewhere about North American vs European apartments, particularly the smaller 2-4 floor/3-4 units per floor ones, and the European ones tended to have a smaller footprint, but more wall space and more practically usable space than the North American designs.
I light up my dungeon with 11W, 1600lm bulbs. Gotta keep that circadian rhythm adjusted.