Routine planning of layouts often scares architectural workshops, although the layout, no less than the facades, meets the demand of the time - to make mass housing individual. ARCHIMATIKA was not afraid of the scale of the task and developed a new standard for layouts - PRO-apartments.
The overriding task that the architects set for themselves could sound like this: "how many families, so many layouts." To do this, ARCHIMATIKA have come up with basic types of apartments, which, due to the elements of the "set", can vary indefinitely, adjusting to the buyer. At the same time, the internal space is organized so that every square meter works effectively.
To begin with, the architects dismantled the apartment into "morphemes" - basic functional areas. There are eleven of them: a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, a bedroom, an office, an entrance hall, a wardrobe, a sanitary area, a utilitarian pantry and a laundry room, a fresh air area (loggias and balconies) and a FREE-zone - free space for yoga, dancing and children's games.
Then we identified the types of households and apartment dwellers: single and unmarried, young couples, families with children, families with three generations, and so on. For each type, several layouts were developed with the corresponding "scenario", that is, the ratio of functional areas. Since different families of the same type may have different needs - for someone a spacious nursery is important, and for someone a large dining room and a quiet place to work - due to the variation of functional zones, subtypes of layouts appear.
The architects give a comparison with buying a car: “how we choose the class of the car and its configuration, studying in detail its registration certificate with information about all its parameters - in the same way we decomposed an apartment into parameters,” they say.
Before starting the design, the company conducts a survey among potential buyers, specifying which parameters in the apartment they need, paying special attention to the family's lifestyle. As a result, a matrix of buyers is formed, on the basis of which the authors decide which apartments, with what parameters and in what quantity will be in the new building. Each PRO-apartment, - says the director of the ARCHIMATIKA company Alexander Popov, - is an exact fit into the demography, budget and lifestyle of the family.
PRO-apartments area - from 17 to 200 m2… They are ranked not by the number of rooms, but by the number of bedrooms: from studio to four-bedroom. They are further divided into classes. For convenience, the international classification of clothing sizes is used: XS, S, M, L, XL and XXL. The higher the class, the larger the area and the more detailed functional areas are presented.
For example, in a one-bedroom apartment as you move from size XS to XL (28 to 90 m2) there may be a bathroom instead of a shower, a large dining table, a workplace, a wardrobe, a dedicated kitchen. Apartments with a large number of bedrooms have such "bonuses" as a bathroom or dressing room with a window, master-bedroom - a bedroom with a bathroom and a free-zone, a terrace.
ARCHIMATIKA's special pride is its three-bedroom apartments, which have almost ceased to be built in Kiev.
The architects also managed to return the charm and demand to two-level layouts: it is believed that they are rarely bought, since it is inconvenient to constantly walk up the stairs. However, ARCHIMATIKA turned them into "cottages" on the upper floors with an area of 100-200 m², with a panoramic view, and with their own cozy courtyard-terrace on the roof.
Returning to the small PRO-apartments, it is worth noting that the scenarios for the development of the family are thought out in their layouts: if a small child appears, there will be a place for a crib. If the child has grown up, he is offered to give the bedroom, and the parents move to the studio space of the living-dining room. However, the architects hope that such a solution will be only temporary - until the family moves to at least a 2-bedroom apartment!
The sales department of the developer and the "Passport of the functional use of the apartment" compiled by the architects help to understand the layouts. It includes a card with the layout and functional areas of the apartment, which are color-coded. Also in the "data sheet" there are two characteristic parameters:
- Functional front - the length of the furniture, conventionally deployed horizontally. It clearly shows linear zones such as a wardrobe and a kitchen front, as well as other zones, which allows them to be correlated with each other.
- Functional area - the area of furniture and equipment required for a particular function, as well as the area of free space required for their use.
The total functional area of all zones in an apartment can exceed the actual one - due to the use of one space for different functions. It is worth noting here that the arrangement of furniture in PRO-apartments is not "iron", buyers are shown different options. Since architects use standard furniture dimensions, and layouts are overwhelmingly rectangular, changes can be made without much loss of efficiency.
The sales department performs another function - it receives feedback from customers, thereby making the process interactive. There are now about two hundred types of layouts in the catalogs of ARCHIMATICS, and this number is growing with each project. When a new version appears, it is compared with the nearest smaller PRO apartment in the line. If additional meters provide additional comfort, the layout gets PRO status, if not, it is sent for processing.
The variety of layouts complicates and increases the cost of designing, but, according to Alexander Popov, this does not affect the cost of PRO apartments. ARCHIMATIKA manages to maintain its standard even in the construction of economy-class housing. Thus, the Pasechny complex in Lviv, where prices are one and a half times lower than those in Kiev, still managed to be fully equipped with PRO-apartments.
And yet, building a house with so many layouts is much more difficult than multiplying one typical section: the frame mesh becomes more complicated, you need to install different windows and doors. It is impossible to make such a project a reality without a well-organized, highly professional developer. ARCHIMATIKA first implemented this approach with the company KAN, with which the architects have been working for more than twelve years and have built a dozen objects.
The architects of ARCHIMATIKA came to the topic of planning optimization in 2015 - then they developed for KAN a small series of SMART apartments in the Comfort Town residential complex, these were optimally planned, but minimal in area of the apartment. Then, developing the theme, the architects came to the conclusion that the principle of the functional use of each square meter is also relevant for large areas of living space - this is how PRO-apartments appeared.
Now, apart from the 40-hectare superblock
"Fine Town" (KAN), in which it became possible to present almost the entire line of PRO-apartments, 7 more residential complexes are being built, in which the layouts of apartments are developed on the basis of the PRO concept, in cooperation with KAN: in the residential complex "Respublika" and in the latter the queue of the residential complex "Comfort Town", with the company bUd development: "Slavutich", "Slavutich 2.0" and "Time", in Kiev, and finally in Lviv with the company Your House in the residential complex "Pasechny".
PRO-apartments are just one of the components of PRO-housing, which, according to the architects, should replace the so-called "discomfort class": faceless, inconvenient, inhuman buildings. Other principles that ARCHIMATIKA adheres to when creating residential buildings of the "new generation":
PRO facades
The architecture of housing, along with the solution of all utilitarian issues, from gutters with thermal insulation to the placement of outdoor units of air conditioners, should express the individuality of each house, each block in such a way that residents of this house and block proudly post selfies in front of their house, and tourists include walks along residential new buildings in their own routes.
PRO parking
In a city where millions of people live, there will always be a shortage of space, so a car that takes up a lot of space is a luxury vehicle. Therefore, parking is a part of an urban area occupied by a car; it should always be paid, both on municipal land and on the territory of the residential complex.
PRO-semiprivate
The public space of an urban apartment building should be much larger than the entrance to a residential entrance and a corridor with apartment doors - these are all functions that are financially irrational to place in your apartment: starting from a coworking area for adults and a play area for children and ending with a pool with a spa.
PRO-quarters
The open field of the microdistrict "seeded" with houses remains in the XX century. The XXI century revives the quarter as the main urban-planning unit of housing. However, this is no longer a literal reincarnation of the 19th century quarter: there are no dark courtyards-wells and the contrast of the ceremonial splendor of the street facade and the utilitarian dullness of the courtyard. This is a new quality of open and semi-open spaces, public and semi-private, creating optimal conditions for both apartments and public functions.
ARCHIMATICS projects prove that mass residential development can be humanized right now, regardless of norms and restrictions, as well as not grieving about tough market conditions, and even helping to sell - after all, a diverse line of proposals works well as a marketing technique, adding "points" to residential complex, and the demand - to its architects.
