In the thick and sometimes monotonous concrete jungles of today, one might stumble upon some architectural and design marvels that have the potential to blow you away. Today, sit back and feast your senses on some of these apartment buildings that are fully deserving of all your fun, shocking, (and weird) reactions. It does begin with the smallest and tallest apartment in world, but as the list goes on, the real fun begins!
Table of Contents
1. Tallest Apartment in World
Imagine standing right below the glorious New York skyline looking up to the sky, eyes squinting, when you notice a building that stands apart from all else. It appears to be extremely long, with a series of thin, shiny towers placed close to one another. You are without any doubt, looking at Central Park Tower, the tallest apartment in world. This giant structure has 131 floors. It boasts 179 luxury condos and three complete floors with top-class amenities like an outdoor terrace with pool, a wellness center with an indoor pool, a ballroom, and a cigar and wine bar on the 100th floor, magnificent BBQ areas, conference and business centers and an exclusive fitness center as well.
The 1550-foot tower offers views of the Central Park, the sea, the New York skyline. With grandiose architecture that allows spectacular views like these, no wonder the starting price of the condos stand at $7 million. Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Hill Architecture the tower is adorned with shiny glass and stainless steel and the expected sell-out for the tower is $4 billion. This also makes it the most expensive condo project till date.
Read about some of the other tall buildings in the world here.
2. Ping-Pong Balls Apartment
How would you feel, if one day you came back to your apartment after a long day, kicked off your shoes, threw your keys into their place and leaned against the wall, letting out a tired sigh. But upon closer look, you realise the wall isn’t made of bricks or cement. Wait, this is something else. All the walls made up of grey and white coloured ping pong balls! Seems like something out of a weird dream, right? But this is completely real. This apartment situated in Brooklyn, New York has walls entirely covered with 25,000 ping-pong balls.
The owner, Daniel Arsham is a partner in an architecture firm called Snarkitecture whose office is attached to the apartment’s loft. To enter the office, he climbs the ladder through the office’s bathroom. So, we guess the tallest apartment in world isn’t the only show stealer in this list, huh? The apartment was built by Snarkitecture in 2 months for less than a $100 per square foot. There isn’t much to do in the apartment except for sleeping and dressing considering it’s a mere 90 square feet in size.
3. Foldable Origami Apartment
Thinking outside the box can certainly add a dash of creativity to our ideas. But have you ever considered thinking inside the box? In this tiny origami apartment in Manhattan, New York, design, architecture and usability mingle seamlessly with one another. Initially, the apartment was just a rectangular space when it was bought by Third-grade teacher Eric Schneider in 2005. But then, architects Michael Chen and Kari Anderson of Normal Projects transformed it completely. Today, the apartment consists of an oversized blue cabinet that fits 4 full sized rooms which includes a guest bedroom, an office-cum-library, living room, a bed, a night stand, and kitchen storage too. Crazy, right? The title of tallest apartment in world may have been conferred to Central Park Tower but this one is definitely the most innovative.
Japanese sense of space inspired Schneider to create this origami-like pad. In 2005 the 450 square foot apartment cost him $235,000. He invested another $70,000 dollars to create the origami structure. Watch the video below to see how the cabinet folds and unfolds into 4 rooms.
4. Container City
The tallest apartment in world may offer world class luxury amenities, but Container City’s combination of sustainability and creativity sets it apart. This unique project essentially comprises vibrantly coloured, retired shipping containers that have been strategically stacked over one another. Most of the compartments are made from recycled materials that are meant to be repurposed as affordable homes and workspaces. Today the containers have also included two cafes and a parkour academy on the ground floor. Porthole shaped round windows, walkways and sliding doors made of glass are some of its noticeable features. The compartment units are fitted and completed off-site after which they are craned into place. Depending on the size and scale of the project, this can take 1-15 days. The space area taken up by the container varies between 200-550 square feet.
Having completed over sixteen projects using the same technique, it has been looked at as a viable option for today’s real estate market. And rightly so, who would have thought using shipping containers as actual residential spaces would have garnered three first place awards to it’s architect Nick Lacey? The mere quality of their adaptability can change the way we look at housing today. Perhaps, one day, when we run out of all space by constructing one tallest apartment in the world after another, we might even consider shifting to flexible residential projects like these.
5. Tiny Apartments of Hong-Kong:
Tallest apartment in world towering over everything in its sight? Sure, that does sound intimidating. But did you know, there exist micro-apartments that literally start and end at 1-steps distance? You heard that right! Hong-Kong is home to what we may consider to be one of the smallest apartments in the world. Tiny cage-like rooms, with barely any room to walk or move are literally 4 square feet in area. Apparently, such spaces started emerging in the 1950s. Today, many of the people who occupy such spaces depend on the assistance of the government. What blew our minds was the fact that they are rented at $167 per month!
After a bit of research, we found out that Closet Apartments thrive in Hong Kong. The next one, at an area of 16 square feet can roughly be compared to a spacious closet. The space is just enough to hold a small sized bed. But somehow, creativity has found its way here too. People decorate these spaces by hanging overhead trinkets or decorations. At least, some of these offer a range of amenities like wireless internet, air conditioning unit and windows. The rent? It’s $384!
Here are some more small-sized apartments around the world.
And that was the list! We hope you enjoyed this eccentric ride on the strange apartment buildings express. Do let us know which building in the list took you by surprise.