Architecture, Design & Building Typologies

In 2022, Apparata Architects completed A House for Artists in Barking, East London, using a five-storey concrete structure to provide homes and workspaces for twelve artists and their families at below-market rates. This reflects the core mechanics of residential design: altering the physical form, materials and layout of buildings to change who can afford them and how they function. Whether through modular off-site fabrication that cuts construction time, mass timber methods that lower carbon footprints, or adaptive layouts that allow tenure flexibility, the way housing is planned directly dictates its cost, durability and capacity to house different demographics. By shifting from standard single-use blocks to mixed-use morphologies or collective living units, developers and municipalities adjust the density and social utility of urban land.

Approaches to residential design vary sharply across Europe based on local constraints and historical precedents. In Montenegro, the legacy of large-scale typologies is visible in Podgorica’s Blok 5, a mass-housing quarter of thirteen buildings and 1,800 flats constructed between 1977 and 1984. Today, the same city is testing new models, recently drawing 77 international entries for its Gradski stan affordable housing competition. While Podgorica focuses on new municipal blueprints, other regions are adapting existing spaces to overcome land and resource limits. The Bund Deutscher Architektinnen und Architekten in Bavaria has published a technical handbook for converting vacant office spaces into affordable housing, whereas Monaco has bypassed its land scarcity entirely by completing Mareterra, a six-hectare residential extension built directly over the sea by Bouygues Travaux. Meanwhile, historical adaptations continue to inform modern resilience, as seen in Messina, where researchers are studying the anti-seismic building systems developed along Via Risorgimento following the 1908 earthquake.

Below, readers will find a collection of architectural blueprints, academic studies on post-war housing estates, and technical guidelines for structural conversions, alongside profiles of European design practices and upcoming industry events like MIPIM 2027. Housing providers and urban planners can use this material to compare construction methods, evaluate the performance of different building typologies, and identify partners for future residential developments.