Floor plan types

In most cases the different types of town houses are characterised by an external access system. Predominant throughout, however, is the tendency to employ a combination of different access typologies within a single project to achieve greater variation. To enable a better comparison of the projects, we have therefore chosen not to employ access typologies but rather spatial categories as our classification system. The categories nevertheless overlap, blend and fuse with one another.

Row

The depth of the row as a basic urban form varies according to its orientation: a south-facing strip is typically around 7 to 9 metres deep. This variant has large windows on the south side with secondary and ancillary functions on the north side lit by smaller windows. Strips with a west-east orientation are approximately 12 to 14 metres deep. The zoning of the floor plan is more flexible than the north south variant.



Twin row

In the case of the twin row, only one face of each row faces outwards. The other face is oriented inwards towards a more or less open interior court- yard, which depending on size and proportions can have a passage-like character. The courtyards or passages can be covered as a means of conserving energy or furnished to serve as communal areas.

Single-aspect row

With this typology, only one side of the row receives daylight and ventilation. This house type can be built-up on three sides and is consequently suitable for tight infill sites and as a means of redensifying existing quarters. For this reason this typology will in future become increasingly important.

Perimeter block – continuous

The perimeter block is a combination of row and corner  floor plans. Its primary typological characteristic is that it faces simultaneously inwards onto an interior courtyard and outwards onto the urban surroundings. Coupled with the need to orient with respect to the sun this results in different  floor plan zonings for the respective sides of the block.

Perimeter block – perforated

This house type is a reaction to the difficult  floor plan arrangement of the apartments in the perimeter block. The tension between inward and out- ward orientation of the  floor plan on the one hand and orientation with respect to the sun on the other determine the form of the individual sides of the block. The perforation of the perimeter building is a strategy that creates external spaces and distance between the separate parts of the block.

Infill

The in filling of a vacant lot is a traditional design task in the city. The piece that joins together two separate buildings has to accommodate the height and depth of each of its neighbours. In most cases this building has a front- back orientation due to the presence of firewalls on both sides, in some cases, however, it is only single-aspect.