Downwind Residential Apartment | Ashari Architects

Downwind Residential Apartment

Form in relation to the site context and alley landscape: This project is located adjacent to predominantly one-story buildings. Since the project must be a three-story building, to maintain the continuity of the neighbors, the project created form flection and depression to align the form with the skyline. That means the first and second floors are expanded laterally and appear as an independent volume. The ground floor maintains the adjacent building connection and continuity in a surface shape. The building form is rounded at the corners where the main and secondary streets intersect to preserve the conjunction of volume (first and second floors) and the surface (ground floor).

The connection between inside and outside: The building is detached from three sides. It faces the backyard from the south, the main alley from the west, and a deadline alley from the north. The utmost connection between the inside and outside was established on the south side to use the desirable light and provide a generous view of the backyard. The south-facing extroversion aspect of the building provides privacy and invites the Zagros Mountain view to the inside space. A shell surface is created on the west side of the building to provide privacy and balance the undesirable west light and reduce the visual chaos. This shell creates a white background to highlight the ancient trees. The building terraces are located behind this shell which allows the residents to utilize the space and have privacy while facing the main street. This shell continues to the back of the building (north side), and a few openings reviles to take advantage of the existing calmness of the dead-end alley.

The roof was built as a horizontal surface to create openings and invite the sky to the interior space. This provides tall ceilings in some interior spaces. Kitchen space, green space, seating, and children's play area were designed to transform the roof from a passive space into a more dynamic space.

The dancing shell with the wind: The project is located in front of Zagros Mountain. Due to the air pressure difference, the alley acts as a wind corridor and makes the tree leaves dance. We were inspired by the tree leaves movement and dancing and created the building shell (cover), which consists of a grid of light and small square surfaces in order to simulate the wind dancing with the leaves and create a dynamic and functional building shell. The square surface movement makes the space dynamic and provides light and shade contrast. Additionally, the interim space between the building shell and building face is intended to entice the kids' curiosity sense and serve as a play area.