Competition: win a pack of 50 Housing Floor Plans cards

This article announces a competition to win one of two sets of "50 Housing Floor Plans" card packs, created by the A+T Research Group, the research division of A+T Architecture Publishers. The competition, now closed, awarded two readers a deck of these flashcards designed as an educational resource for architects and enthusiasts of urban planning. The "50 Housing Floor Plans" cards measure 13 by eight centimeters and each card features a contemporary city housing block constructed between 2000 and 2017. The front side of each card visually presents the overall floor plan of the residential building, offering a macro view of its layout within an urban context. Conversely, the rear side of the card provides a detailed floor plan of a single unit within that same building, allowing for a closer examination of individual living spaces and their internal configurations. This dual presentation format facilitates a comprehensive understanding of both the collective and individual aspects of modern housing design. The primary purpose of these cards is to serve as a comparative tool for architects, enabling them to analyze and contrast various design approaches. The cards highlight crucial aspects of residential design, including levels of privacy and "exterior-ness," which quantifies the relationship of interior spaces to the outdoors. The A+T Research Group emphasized that the cards are not merely a game but a professional resource aimed at promoting well-designed collective housing. The design allows architects to spread out all 50 cards simultaneously, facilitating easy comparison, organization, and selection of relevant designs for their projects. This interactive method supports a deeper engagement with different architectural solutions for compact city living. The aesthetic of the cards features an off-white background complemented by muted shades of red, brown, and green, contributing to a retro look. The information is presented in a simplified manner to enhance readability and comprehension. Instead of traditional project names, each card is identified by the geometric form of the featured housing scheme's floor plan, using descriptive titles such as "Z-shape," "Butterfly," "Spine," "Empty Circle," and "Cactus." This categorization system helps to abstract and analyze the underlying structural and spatial concepts. Each floor plan is scaled with rulers on the sides; the building plans are at a 1:1000 scale, and the individual unit plans are at a 1:300 scale, with markings for both meters and feet. A scale at the top of each card uses bars labeled "Lowest," "Low," "Moderate," "High," and "Highest" to indicate the privacy levels (marked in red on the front) and "exterior-ness" (marked in green on the rear) of the housing units. Accompanying extra cards explain the methodologies and indices used to gather this data. For privacy assessment, factors like vertical circulation, floor area allocated to horizontal circulation, building height, and the number of units per story were considered. "Exterior-ness" was determined by evaluating the percentage of outdoor space, facade area, width of openings, and the depth of the housing unit. A+T Research Group, founded in 2011 by journalist Aurora Fernández Per and architect Javier Mozas, focuses on research in collective housing, density, mixed uses, and public spaces, with findings published by A+T Architecture Publishers. This card pack is their second release exploring compact city living, following the "50 Urban Blocks" card pack, which detailed city block design. The "50 Housing Floor Plans" are available for purchase from A+T Publishers for €22 in English or Spanish. #HousingDesign #FloorPlans #ArchitecturalResearch #UrbanPlanning #DesignTools #CompactLiving #ArchitecturalCompetitions #HousingDesign #FloorPlans #ArchitecturalResearch #UrbanPlanning #DesignTools #CompactLiving #ArchitecturalCompetitions

92 months ago

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