1st Edition

Apartment Block Design Massing Matters

By Simos Vamvakidis Copyright 2025
264 Pages 179 Color Illustrations
by Routledge

264 Pages 179 Color Illustrations
by Routledge

264 Pages 179 Color Illustrations
by Routledge

This architectural design book focuses on massing studies for multi-unit housing projects, namely apartment blocks; it provides a fresh look at architectural synthesis for architects, students and architecture-curious readers. The author re-examines the apartment block as a design model, for today and tomorrow, through a simple, flexible and explicit design approach. The innovation of this book... Read more

PART 1: THEORY

1. The Book Methodology 

2. A closer look at the General Frame: A way to combine Housing Units, Circulation and Communal Spaces

3. What is an Apartment Block?

 

PART 2: DESIGN

4. Housing Units in a large, single block (and its variations)

Case Studies:

1. Habitat 67 by Moshe Safdie

2. Party Walls by Papalampropoulos Syriopoulou Architecture Bureau

3. Robin Hood Gardens Estate by Alison & Peter Smithson

4. 8 House by BIG

5. Mirador by MVRDV

6. Parkrand by MVRDV

7. Sluishuis by BIG & Barcode architects

8. Gifu Kitagata by SANAA

9. La Borda housing cooperative by Lacol

10. Hansen by AREA

11. Ibiza housing by RipollTizon Estudio de arquitectura

12. Polymonokatoikia by Yannis Aesopos

5. Massing Matters and Living Together

Biography

Simos Vamvakidis is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Patras, Greece. He has been teaching design studios as a lecturer/year leader and an Assistant Professor in the UK, Greece and Lebanon since 2008. He founded SVstudio in 2006, an architectural office that has won prizes in international architecture competitions. His latest built project is the eight holiday houses on the island of Kea in Greece. He is interested in any architectural gesture that interrogates how we experience public and private spaces. He is the author of two monographs: Innovative Architecture Strategies (2016) and Composing Architecture and Interior Design (2018).

He holds a PhD in Architectural Design from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), funded by the Onassis Foundation, and the National Greek Scholarships Fund. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of West Athens, Greece and a diploma in Architectural Engineering from NTUA, graduating within the top five in 2003. He is an alumnus of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Architecture MArchII program, funded by the Fulbright Foundation. He has made numerous conference presentations.