Could house-like apartments improve the residential quality of a city? The case of Niš, Serbia

Abstract

The concept of a peaceful, individual home surrounded by greenery, built in a multistorey apartment building—a synthesis of a villa from the suburbs and an apartment in the city—is a theme very rich in possibilities for future urban development. By recognizing the positive characteristics of family houses and their application in apartment buildings, usual housing in apartment buildings gains an alternative. The first part of the paper is an analysis of the characteristics of house-like apartments: access to the apartment, private open space, three-dimensional spatial organization and visual identity. It continues with a questionnaire survey carried out among occupants living in apartment buildings in Nis, Serbia, regarding which characteristics of house-like apartments they recognize in their own apartments, if any, and how important they consider them to be for the general residential quality. It is interesting that occupants assess as significant only some basic forms of this type of apartment, while other, less obvious forms are considered to be irrelevant for the quality of housing. The results of this study include design recommendations and recommendations for the redefinition of standards that regulate the field of designing apartment buildings, in order to improve the quality of housing in the city.