Paaniz Hosseini

Sitting on a rectangular lot is a 6-pack that’s typical in some ways and peculiar in other ways. A minimal setback from legal boundaries sides with inner-city suburbia. Bias to orientation and access, the front finds its way at the Eastern fringe. Private and communal balconies are arranged like large rooms of their own. The articulation of cranks to the floor plan lends more ground to communal rooms, gardens and shared amenities; a peculiar quality given the typology of 6-packs. Floor plans mostly have large casual rooms connected at edges to other rooms that arrange themselves without corridors. Rooms rely less on partition walls and more on the arrangement of furniture.

A deep vestibule at ground level, two deep balconies on upper levels and a detached staircase occupy the side.

The back appears more like a private front. A delicate balustrade sets the datum height for windows to follow and furniture to comfortably sit below.

A double laned balcony that is deep and North facing. Mostly shared furniture placed at its centre, some cranked and some not. A subtle material change of concrete to floor tiles suggests a private patio that belongs to the unit beside.

Furniture, potted plants and things alike not only behave programmatically but also architecturally.

Almost a third of the front is gravel with the exception of a central mound guarding an existing tree. Through the front entrance is something like a garden vestibule with softer ground and discreetly placed pavers. Programmed mostly with shared amenities and a detached staircase. A house for one that’s angled away from a house for two or three. A patio wedged between. The smaller unit is a loop plan, while the larger unit is reminiscent of a Mies Plan. Furniture is arranged mostly in detached clusters, away from walls and at times following a cranked logic. At the rear is a hard corner or a meeting of two slanted walls that delineate between a pair of private gardens.