

bamboo court II
2018
A new 18-unit apartment building designed to echo the original Bamboo Court apartments next door. While the new apartments were required to match the materiality, style and side-facing gabled forms of its older sibling, there were opportunities to make a few design improvements to the interior layouts, exterior circulation, and the street frontage. The first building had two interconnected wings of residences facing an elongated open courtyard between them, and the second building was to follow suit and mirror this configuration. In order to avoid the monotony of four contiguous wings of apartments, and to create a more urban street presence, the northern wing of the new building was pushed forward to the sidewalk edge while the south wing continued the original, recessed building line. Moving one wing forward also made room in the back for a larger outdoor amenity space than was possible with the previous configuration. Up front, a set of entry stairs lead to a covered porch, which acts as the gateway to the namesake courtyard at the heart of the building. Inside the gate, overhead balconies and exterior stairs encircle a three-story grove of bamboo that runs down the middle of the court. Toward the back, a bamboo-laden pathway leads to the shared gathering spaces behind the buildings. A third shared court resides between the old and new structures connecting the outdoor common areas directly to the street.