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This is something I noticed in China. I lived in a 3-bed, 1450 sqft apartment in Xicheng, Beijing that had a great layout. It went up six stories and had a sing
by vehemenz 3y ago
This is something I noticed in China. I lived in a 3-bed, 1450 sqft apartment in Xicheng, Beijing that had a great layout. It went up six stories and had a single staircase, four apartments per story.
Having light on both sides of an apartment makes the whole apartment brighter and improves air circulation. Almost every apartment I visited had a similar layout—totally unlike apartments I've seen in the U.S. A townhome is probably the closest thing we have here, though they only go 2-3 stories and don't share staircases.
- steveBK123 3y ago1450-sqft is more 2BR size in NYC for sure. Layout is underappreciated as well in terms of apartments versus freestanding homes. I've had North facing apartments that never got much light, and South facing apartments that got baked by the sun (75F indoors when it's 45F out on a sunny day). You can't really ventilate that 75F apartment when all the windows are on the same side. Both suck. Having 2-3 exposures in an apartment layout is a rare luxury. So we get no circulation and need to run central air more.
- brigade 3y ago4 story townhomes including the garage are pretty common, and when American building codes heavily restrict buildings over 5 stories (and encourage parking spaces) then it makes perfect sense to build 3/4 bedroom housing stock as townhomes rather than apartments