Building Community: New Apartment Architecture

Book by Michael Webb

Thames & Hudson (hardcover, 256 pages)

When we think of groundbreaking architecture, apartment structures are seldom the first thing to come to mind. In this fully illustrated title, author Michael Webb – also a regular Azure contributor – cites housing shortages and a push for urban densification as reasons to reconsider the multi-residential building’s potential. He draws on 39 recent examples to demonstrate how varied, comfortable and full of personality apartment buildings can be. Divided into five main categories and bookended by explorations of the typology’s past and future, these ingenious case studies range from Kazuyo Sejima’s minimalist Nishinoyama House (a cluster of 10 modest shelters separated by courtyards) to the Interlace (OMA and Ole Scheeran’s Singapore complex of over 1,000 units stacked into six-storey blocks across an eighthectare site). Interspersed throughout are essays by architects, including Michael Maltzan and Lorcan O’herlihy, currently redefining the possibilities of multi-unit residences. These reflections offer the next generation words of inspiration and insight into the challenges of building sustainable and sociable apartments.