Sky Condos | DCPP Arquitectos

Sky Condos | DCPP Arquitectos

We all dream about the ideal house or apartment, that perfect piece of architecture in which we feel comfortable living and that we can call our own. When it comes to condos however it may be difficult to separate one from another, identical copies, pasted in a row and stacked on top of one another to create a residential building. These traditional towers provide an easy solution for an architect whom only has to design one apartment, or maybe two or three if they are feeling particularly ambitious, and then arrange them into a structure, a lazy and offensive use of architecture that I admit I have also been guilty of.

Courtesy of DCPP Arquitectos

Sky Condos by DCPP Arquitectos takes the idea of a residential tower and transforms it into a unique living space, unbounded by the need to have every apartment space to be identical. The building itself is 20 stories consisting of three types of apartments that adjust to different necessities, where each condo has a clear individuality and uses the private exterior spaces as the main core. The structure consists of a transparent glass façade and a series of elevated courtyards to emphasis the firm’s belief that “an apartment shouldn’t lack exterior space.” By making the façade mainly transparent the connection between interior and exterior space is enhanced as a new relation between public and private areas is pursued.”]

Courtesy of DCPP Arquitectos

In order to further separate this design from the drab and boring stacked residential buildings, connected on to each courtyard a concrete swimming pool is cantilevered from the structure. With the main space of each apartment being the exterior spaces, the pool and terraces bring dynamism to the whole tower. The terraces are used to help fill the apartments with natural light and create a game of light and shadows. The way the apartments appear to be suspended and the cantilevered pools bring me to question a lot of things about structure within this project and if constructing something like this would even be possible. Still the proposal is a powerful interpretation of what an apartment complex can be like when given a little more imagination, and whether or not it is actually plausible only adds to its fanciful and fantastic nature.