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!

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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