My home town Aarhus has been in a building spree for quite some time. As the city redevelops, I keep seeing new buildings popping up all the time. Most of these buildings are medium height residential buildings as demand and profit seem to be highest for these kinds of buildings.
One thing I see in common with all of these new buildings is the use of the ground floor. The ground floor consists of apartments. One example is the new apartment project Augusthave at the end of Katrinebjergvej.
Augusthave as seen from Katrinebjergvej.
If you've lived in a ground floor apartment like this you might cringe. Because theres a huge problem with these apartments; the lack of privacy. The Property developer and general contractor Nordstern have decided to build apartments even on the ground floor. As these apartments face the main street, a lot of foot traffic pass the windows. As a bypasser it's natural to look inside. However It's awkward to catch somebody in the underwear, for both those living there and the bypasser. Meaning as you pass buildings like these you’ll often see either the curtains drawn or strong light diffusers installed on the windows.
On this specific apartment the architects have been so nice as to put a flight of stairs, so a bypasser can go up to get a better view 😁... Note that the door cannot be opened from the outside. Making it useless as an entrance. Notice also how there's no path leading to it.. It seems as if it's a two story balcony? It's very cursed
Floor plan of a studio apartment in Augusthave
What’s further noteworthy about this building, is that almost the whole ground floor consists of studio apartments. As you can see from the floor plan, the only window is street facing. Meaning if you cover the windows in some way, that it will prevents natural light from entering the apartment and is therefore also bad for mental health1. Generally it seems that the bottom floor is very undesirable for these reasons.
Households by size in Denmark
Source: dst.dk
According to danish statistics, single person households has been increasing the most2. Low rent studio apartments are in high demand. Therefore those apartments are the first to be rented out despite the apparent undesirability. In contrast the few 4 room apartments on the ground floor have not yet been rented out. Because those who have that many economic means choose to pay extra to live further up.
Often people who live in these places are students. Who has to suck up a lot of things in their life, because of the fact that they don't yet have an income and cannot afford to be picky about living conditions. Therefore these apartments are seen by renters as “temporary” housing. It almost seems as if these people with little to no choice have been used to finance the upper floors.
More examples of newly built buildings that have residential apartments on the ground floor can be found all over the city. For example: Amaliegade 17, Skejbyparken, Skejbyen, Zebra House, Nabolaget, Margarinegården, Blomsterhaven, Tranekollegiet... ugh it feels like I could go on forever. Note that these buildings have all finished within 6 years of writing this. So these are brand new! Some only finished last year. This is either an embarrassing oversight from the multiple different architects, or this is a profit maximizing measure. Either way it's mortifying.
Next time you're out and about and pass a newly built building like this, you could count how many curtains are drawn. To see if the theory anecdotally holds water.
Solutions
I'm all about solutions. I'm not here to just point out an issue. Therefore I will also present 3 great solutions.
The Basement
Katrinebjergvej 63
Right across the street from the newly built Augusthuse is Katrinebjergvej 63. Built in 1968, ironically this building doesn't have the same problem. The architects at that time had already known this and taken it into consideration. All buildings from this time feature a basement with “half” windows. The basements are used for utilities such as bike parking, laundry room, storage etc. Effectively moving the ground floor out of eye height of the bypassers whilst still allowing for natural light into the basement.
Collective Space
Aarhus Kollegiet
Another way to use the ground floor is collective space. By placing common rooms on the ground floor to don't have the same need for privacy. Dedicated student buildings do this very well.
Although they do this for the wrong reasons. They are forced to have common area, since the rooms are inhumanly small at 20m2 or less.
Examples of rooms that could be placed on the ground floor could be: laundry rooms, offices, gyms etc.
Public Service
Stjernepladsen in Aarhus
Another way. And in my opinion a superior way, is to use the space is to have public facing services. By having more readily available commercial properties you will create more opportunity for gathering spaces and economic interaction. You might not be able to charge the same rent. However I believe the city would be better off by building higher, and leaving the first floor to commercial use.
The ground floor of Augusthave would have been much better suited for commercial property since there's a lot of foot traffic surrounding the building.
On the image is an example; Stjernepladsen built in 1959. It features a public square with stores on all the ground floors facing it. Combined with a basement, these old building utilize the ground floor much more sensibly.
Conclusion
I think these kinds of apartments should be prevented by law.
I think the government should pass a law mandating that: all unobstructed residential apartments should have their floor raised at least 1 meter off the ground level.
This would mean the lowest part of the window would be 1 meter off the ground and another meter could be covered by diffusion. Creating privacy for the inhabitants. An apartment that has a garden with a hedge would be exempt for example. This would also apply to apartments facing inwards towards the yard. Since the problem is still relevant there just to a lesser degree.
Also more broadly I think we should be thinking way more carefully on how we design our buildings. Since at lot of space, energy, greenhouse gasses and money is spent on building. We want them to stand for hundreds of years and for people to happily live in them. Not out of necessity but because they are great places to live.
Sources
- Javiera Morales-Bravo, Pablo Navarrete-Hernandez, Enlightening wellbeing in the home: The impact of natural light design on perceived happiness and sadness in residential spaces, Building and Environment, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132322005509
- Danmarks Statestik, Husstande og familier www.dst.dk/da/Statistik/emner/borgere/husstande-familier-og-boern/husstande-og-familier