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If I asked you to describe the perfect apartment building in an American city, you’d probably mention that (at least) it embodies the location around it.Many months ago it was difficult to find suitable urban housing No uniquely reflects its location. Take New York City’s iconic prewar apartment buildings, which sat around airy courtyards before the advent of air conditioning. Or, Chicago’s classic graystone architecture, built with local stone and tailored for the region’s harsh winters.
Well, it’s 2024 now. While these types of homes aren’t going away anytime soon – “good bones,” you know? – Most of the new Apartment towers being built in American cities look more like…this.
I’ve seen buildings like this in most of the towns I’ve been to lately, and I’m obviously not the only one. Architecture and design TikToker Brittany Been recently went viral on the platform for talking about this phenomenon, and I’m just one of over 1 million viewers reminding us how common these “modern” apartment complexes are becoming.
In her viral video, Brittany, a junior architect who is getting her master’s degree in architecture, responded to another viral TikTok by user @urbannic. “Isn’t it a little depressing that almost every new apartment building in America looks like this?” the TikToker asked, showing a photo of a building not too different from the one above. “I agree,” Brittany replied, “Unfortunately, there’s a reason we may never see the building. [Washington] DC type or [New York City-style] A brownstone again. “
She continued: “This creator is referring to five-in-one buildings. There is a reason why they became very popular in 2010.” Brittany lists the obvious “advantages” of such buildings: because they are Five-story timber frames built on concrete platforms, so they are much cheaper than traditional steel and concrete structures.
In addition to their affordable prices, most five-in-one buildings also rent out their ground floors (the “first floor” in a five-in-one) to businesses, which helps them “better integrated into the urban community.”
But, according to Brittany, that’s usually a positive. “Their architecture is so bland that you can’t even tell what city you’re in based on the buildings,” she said. “It’s cheap to copy and paste in every city, and it’s owned by the same company.”
TikTok users in Brittany also expressed their opinions in the comments, such as the use of materials (even insulation) that cannot withstand certain climates…
…how they seem to be flooding into once-quaint American college towns and campuses…
…and even the fact that the cost-saving materials used (such as wood) do not always produce the best sound insulation from one unit to the next.
But the most common criticism among commenters is — you guessed it — how much a five-story unit typically costs to rent.
Because if you’re like me and have ever been obsessed with buying an apartment and stumbled upon one of these buildings, you know that there’s a 90% chance it will be marketed as a “luxury apartment” with sky-high rents. This is puzzling because in the grand scheme of apartment complexes, five to one is quite a bargain!
In a phone call with Brittany, she told BuzzFeed that five-in-one apartment buildings often have more flaws than we realize, especially as the U.S. housing crisis continues to grow.
According to Axios’ 2023 report, it is expected that America’s housing shortage now reaches millionsTo make matters worse, most new homes are classed as “high end” rather than affordable – something we will revisit in a moment.
Putting aside some of the physical flaws mentioned above, such as aesthetics and perceived quality, there is nothing inherently wrong with these buildings. In theory, five to one has the potential to improve the housing shortage, whether you like the way they look or not.
As building codes changed over time to create more housing, this type of construction could pack habitable units more densely into smaller footprints. “This building can house hundreds of people on one block, but by comparison, a brownstone can only house 10 houses on one block,” Brittany told BuzzFeed.
“Five-plus apartments put people in dense cities and allow them to have their own copy-and-paste apartment style that works for them,” adds Brittany. However, once high rents and real estate marketing reenter the equation, what they offer Any potential solution becomes complicated.
“If you let all “If it’s luxury apartments, then it’s a matter of people moving,” she said. These cheaply built buildings have attracted attention because they often come with “luxury” amenities such as swimming pools, gyms and co-working spaces. The monthly rent in the real estate market is unaffordable for most people around here. This in turn is a huge factor in the gentrification of urban neighborhoods.
The loss of third places, or areas of social interaction outside of home or work (for example: parks and public libraries), has also coincided with the explosive growth of this type of building.”Being five-plus makes it worse because you think about the amenities that these luxury apartments offer, and those amenities are only for those who are in the building,” Brittany said. “They’re not for the public. So, you take all the block space and give it privately to residents. If you continue to do that, you eliminate [the potential] That’s why they charge $5,000 for a studio apartment and you still don’t have a washer and dryer. “
Brittany said architects are always designing new types of housing that are affordable, site-specific and may not lead to gentrification or the loss of third spaces. She points to the award-winning Six Affordable Veterans Housing Project in Los Angeles as an example, which densely packs 52 units into a courtyard-facing (and highly energy-efficient) structure. Ultimately, the barriers to the construction of these creative housing solutions are often real estate developers, who finance housing projects and collect profits over time.
“A five-on-one structure is a highly profitable structure for developers where they have up to five floors of units on top of leased retail or commercial space,” explained Brittany. “That’s why we look at It’s not pretty to see so many five-in-one buildings; a lot of them hire design-build companies to put together what they want, and then they copy-paste it all over the city. They don’t do it this way [architects] Because it takes more time and money. “
So, whether you don’t like the look of them, the rentals, or you have a completely different option, Five on One isn’t going away anytime soon. Brittany said it best in her original video: “There are so many ways to solve this tedious problem we face, but we just don’t see it because it works and we’re buying into it – but also because we There is no choice.”
Well, friends, I think I’ve had enough of capitalism for today. For more great content diving into architecture and design, be sure to follow Brittany on TikTok and Instagram
If you have your own thoughts on 5-in-1 buildings (or the housing situation in general), be sure to post them in the comments below. 👇
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