Apartment #1 / B+P Architects

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Residential architecture reflects how people live in their cities. An apartment building, as a form of collective dwelling, must translate individual living habits into shared spatial systems. In this project, memories of single-family living—of gardens, alleys, and layered thresholds—become the starting point for apartment design.The building consists of one basement level and six floors above ground, composed of two volumes—a typical mixed-use type found in southern Taiwanese cities. The front units are two-level shop residences facing the street and park, while the residential entrance is set at the back, along a quieter side alley, allowing separation between commercial and residential zones.Trees are planted in the gaps between paired residential units, creating a natural buffer. These in-between spaces allow balconies and living-dining areas to open toward the stairwell and toward each other, establishing a dialogue between home and community that is both horizontal and vertical, both public and private.Text description provided by the architects.Located at a quiet corner behind a school district, Apartment #1 faces a park and connects laterally to narrow alleys. The site's conditions are compelling - open green space to the front, and closely packed row houses on both sides - offering an urban grain that is both intimate and defined. Through the spatial sequence of coming home and the arrangement of shared balconies, the project aims to shape a neighborhood lifestyle within a compact urban context.To maximize efficiency on the compact site, the basement accommodates a sloped ramp for parking. At ground level, the building mass extends fully to the street, while slightly pulling back from the rear property line to create distance from adjacent buildings. Above, the two residential wings are staggered vertically. This subtle offset introduces a degree of separation between units, allowing both privacy and a soft spatial dialogue between neighbors.From the third to sixth floors, each unit is uniquely configured rather than based on a standardized layout. The shared stairwell sits at the center, while the private rooms are located on either end of each unit, facing either the street or the rear alley, allowing each home to engage with its urban surroundings in a slightly different way. This design grows from memories of life in a small city—of modest streets and garden-lined courtyards, of urban living shaped by routine and proximity.Chiayi City, though not large, has a distinct neighborhood scale. In my childhood, the path home never ended at the main road. It continued through alleys, past fences, plants, and neighbors' gardens.Residents enter from the alley into a landscaped ground-floor lobby. From there, they ascend via a vertical circulation core - a stairwell and elevator shaft surrounded by greenery and oriented toward the park—to reach the third floor and above, where the residential units are located.The design distinguishes between two layers of "shared space." At the community level, the first layer begins with the green alley leading to the lobby, offering a gentle and welcoming entry sequence. At the residential level, the shared stair halls, balcony spaces, and intermediate green buffers serve as vertical extensions of neighborhood life.