The building on Potcoavei St., in Voluntari, starts from an unusual premise: how do you bring the comfort of a single-family house into a premium apartment building? PPAE’s answer — eight homes that live like houses, each spread over two levels, with their own privacy and access. Four open towards a courtyard at ground level, four rise with terraces on the top floors. A residential project of high standard, for a private beneficiary. PPAE acted as General Designer.

Challenges

The brief was one of typology, not of technique: to offer house-type living — vertical space, a private courtyard or terrace, generosity and a home office — in a collective building, on an irregularly shaped urban plot (1,609 sqm), with a B+G+2F+PF regime. The challenge: for each of the eight units to feel like a standalone home, not an apartment in a block, while preserving the efficiency and coherence of a single building.

Solutions

The building was structured as eight duplex apartments, grouped in pairs. The lower ones spread over the ground floor and the first floor, with a terrace and a private courtyard at ground level; the upper ones occupy the second and set-back third floors, with generous terraces. Access to the upper duplexes is via two stairwells with a lift, so that each home preserves its privacy. The apartments are ample and include office space, for a way of life in which living and working from home coexist. The finishes — exposed brick and decorative renders — and the energy equipment (an air-water heat pump for each apartment, underfloor heating, photovoltaic panels, nZEB standard) confirm the premium positioning.

Result

For the beneficiary, a building that sells a benefit rare on the apartment market: the feeling of a house, with a private courtyard or terrace, in a premium collective product. For PPAE, the demonstration that residential typology can be rethought — a house-block solution that answers a real desire, without giving up the efficiency of a single building.

Do you have a plot on which you want a premium residential development, with a product different from the usual block? The PPAE team can support your project from concept to completion. Contact us