Iterations

Target structure for the building: 32 units, ~1,800 m² net, leaning to family units (2.5S and 3.0S). This is the base for the main brief (APT-01) and the starting point for the floor-by-floor breakdown below. The numbers are a recommendation — the floor allocation and the final geometry are the architect's call.

Mix by type

Floor-by-floor breakdown

Variant 6 removes the ground-floor commercial (retail) unit that Variant 5 kept on the street. That footprint returns to residential use and to the resident ground floor.

This is the main change that defines N6 against the other variants, and it settles the open program question carried in the main brief (BLD-01): the building is residential-only.

Can the greenery that must sit in direct contact with the ground be reduced from 14% to 10%, so the underground garage can extend under more of the plot? We'd like to understand what the zoning rules actually require here.

Our intent is not less greenery overall — it is to move some of it onto the garage slab. Green planted over the parking deck, together with the perimeter gardens, would make up the difference (see DN-17 and DN-18). Please tell us whether green-over-slab can count toward the landscaping requirement, and what the minimum ground-contact figure can be.

In V5 the private ground-level yards favour the south side. In N6 we want every ground-floor apartment to have a small private courtyard of its own — including the units facing north.

This will need work on the overall geometry: increase the setback from the northern plot boundary to the building to 5 m, making the building longer from west to east — a way to give the north units enough room. Additionally, we're willing to trade some of the south-side yard area for it — the southern yards could come down from about 25 m² to around 20 m² (or a little less) so the north yards become possible at all.

For the corner ground-floor units, consider giving the private garden an L-shaped ("Г") form. That would make them the most premium apartments — a patio opening to two aspects.

Move the building itself a little to the east ("right" on our sketches). This enlarges the shared, common-use space next to the entrance and the garage ramp, and improves the everyday experience for all the residents who pass through it.

On the west side, reduce the area given to concrete and paving. Instead of one continuous hard surface, zone this communal space:

• a children's area with an eco-friendly wood-chip surface, and a sand zone for the youngest;
• a quiet relaxation zone with hammocks along the southern edge, in the shade of the trees;
• a social zone with benches or barbecue tables.

Paths should have a gravel surface and a non-linear geometry. Everything between and around the paths is natural planting and grass.

Along the south, east and north sides — the private zone of the ground-floor apartments — keep the ground green. Provide the blind-area strip (otmostka) along the wall and the storm drainage to collect rainwater. On the terraces, gravel small areas for outdoor furniture. Everything else is free green space: a garden the apartment owners can plant with their own flowers and shrubs, left open for each household to arrange. A small part may be paved, but most of this zone should stay green.

Where should the waste-container enclosure be moved to, so that no apartment windows look out onto the bins? We'd like the containers kept out of view of the homes.

Can the tenant storage rooms (kladovke) be taken out of the underground level and placed on the residential floors instead? A few questions decide this:

1. Do we lose usable area by moving them, and how is storage area counted — does its location (underground vs. on a floor) change how it is measured?
2. How does the location affect price?
3. If storage moves up to the floors, does that free enough space below to fit more parking?

If the storage rooms stay in the garage, we'd like an economic comparison of two layouts:

1. The architect's proposed arrangement.
2. Storage around the perimeter — one wall of each unit formed by the building's own structural wall — plus a central "island" of storage placed back-to-back, giving a ring corridor around the island with storage along the outer walls.

Which arrangement uses less material and is the more rational use of space?

If the storage moves to the floors and frees the parking deck, which car-arrangement packs the most vehicles into the area — for example, a herringbone (ёlka) run of cars through the centre with the remaining cars along the perimeter, served by a circular flow? Please advise the most area-efficient scheme.

In V5 the way from the garage into the building is a dedicated corridor. We want to avoid spending parking area on corridors that do nothing else. Route the path from the garage to the lift through the fire vestibule (protivpožarni tambur) — and let that same vestibule also give access to the storage and technical rooms, so one protected space does several jobs.

Do we need a staircase leading from the garage directly out to the street (as a fire escape), or can the garage's stair connection serve only the residential floors?

Is it feasible to make the garage ramp single-lane and control it with a reversible traffic signal (one direction at a time)? This would let the ramp be narrower and give more of the footprint back to parking or landscaping.

In which cases do the regulations require two separate garage entrances, and can the design be arranged to avoid needing a second one? We'd prefer a single entry if it is permissible for our car count and layout.

If the garage already connects to the residential floors by lift and by stairs, is a pedestrian walkway alongside the vehicle ramp still required? If people never need to walk up or down the ramp, we'd rather not build the walkway.

Cover the garage ramp and entrance with a slab — a roof or concrete deck — so the ground above it can be used and counted as landscaped area. Shaped into the terrain, this covering reads as a low planted mound rather than an open pit; fence its perimeter so no one can fall into the ramp cut below. The photo shows the idea.

What depth of soil is needed over the parking deck to plant drought- and heat-tolerant, shallow-rooted greenery such as shrubs? Our understanding is that from about 80 cm of soil, shallow-rooted planting becomes viable — please confirm the depth we should design for. Also confirm the slab is engineered to carry the weight of that soil, the retained water and mature plants.

Are there greenery requirements beyond the area percentage — for example, on plant species? Because the parking sits directly below, we want to keep the load on the slab and the risk of root corrosion low: favour small shrubs and grasses over trees, and keep the soil layer thin.

Move the building's main entrance as close as possible to the garage entry, so the two arrival points sit together and the paths that serve them are short and shared.

Provide bicycle parking outside the building rather than inside it. Place it on the ground between the garage entry and the building entrance, on a gravel (crushed-stone) surface, with proper bike racks. Keeping bikes outdoors here frees interior floor area for living space.

Add a stroller room (kolica) inside the building with a utility sink for rinsing wheels, children's shoes and dogs' paws. To save space, mount the mailboxes on the wall above the stroller bays — each resident parks their stroller under their own mailbox. Put this room on the garage-entry side of the building, so the noise of cars coming and going has the least effect on the apartments.

Place its entrance before the hall with the lift and stairs, so mud from stroller wheels stays out of the lift, the corridors and the apartments.

Separate the lift from the apartments with the stair flight, using the stairs as an acoustic buffer so lift noise doesn't carry into the living spaces.

The lift should be a freight-passenger type — capacity from 1000 kg, with a car about 900–1000 mm wide — so it takes prams, furniture and an ambulance stretcher.

Because the ground-floor apartments have their own private patios and gardens, they are the premium tier — so place only apartments of 60 m² and larger on the ground floor. No small units at this level.

In V5 the floor above the ground floor is larger than it and overhangs it, covering the terrace below (it was shading the commercial unit's terrace). In N6 the ground floor should not be smaller than the floors above it. From there, the upper floors may step inward to form terraces or loggias on floors 1–3, and by the fourth floor the plate can reduce a little more, keeping the terraces to a sensible, functional size (open for discussion).

Floors 1–3 are currently drawn without balconies. Every kitchen-living room needs a balcony of at least 4 m². Each balcony should be large enough for a small sofa, a small table and possibly a grill. Position them so they also shape the facade (see DN-28).

The facades must not be flat, single-plane walls. Give the building real geometry — projecting elements, balconies, and possibly recessed niches — so it never reads as a flat, square box. Corner balconies are worth exploiting: placed at the corners, a balcony opens to two aspects and becomes more usable. On the longer elevation, set the projecting balconies toward the centre. The reference photos show the intent.