The Apartment Through History

The urban apartment, while it may feel like a modern invention, dates back thousands of years, writes Ashley Gardini in a piece for JSTOR Daily.

In the Americas, the ancient city of Teotihuacan housed up to 200,000 people in compact compounds. “While these may have looked a bit different than what we think of as apartments today, evidence shows that these structures ‘generally consist[ed] of several rooms at slightly different levels, arranged around open spaces (courtyards, refuse areas, and light wells) that serve[d] as places for ritual, rainwater collection, partial refuse disposal, and light provision.’” In ancient Rome, ‘insulae’ of up to five stories housed residents of crowded cities.

Later in history, planners and leaders attempted — with varying degrees of success — to sanitize and organize cities by building massive apartment blocks. As technology evolved, so did the ability of builders to construct larger and taller buildings. “In the twenty-first century, even as we continue to build larger and taller structures, architecture needs to respond to the climate crisis and other evolving environmental factors.” A wood-based material called mass timber is being explored as a sustainable alternative to other construction materials that is strong enough to use in buildings of up to 25 stories (to date).