The alley lost its trees; the green remained, this time in height.
01Scene
This alley was once known for its trees. Single-family houses hid behind the branches, and before any wall, a passer-by saw green. Then the apartment blocks arrived, one after another; their volumes took the place of the trees in the view, and the greenery that had once defined the alley was pushed to its edges.
02The knot
We had no wish to rebuild the past. The question was: which quality of that view can continue within today’s way of living?
03Untying the knot
The answer was continuation: carrying the green from the ground up into the height of the building, and turning it from an ornament on the façade into part of the living space. Deep terraces, setbacks and places to plant invite greenery onto every floor; in parts of the building, double-height terraces leave room for taller plants, so the green can grow and change along the building’s full height.
Green tiles creep from the façade into the terraces and continue across floors and ceilings, turning the edge between outside and semi-open space into one continuous experience. The service front, by contrast, is wrapped in a perforated stone skin: cut and rotated pieces that turn a flat surface into a filter for light and views, keeping privacy and hinting at the different life behind them.
None of this relied on expensive materials. An economical stone, tiles made in a local workshop and carefully considered details delivered variety and quality within the limits of the project.
We did not set out to rebuild the past, only to let one of its qualities continue.
04Epilogue
In Emtedad the façade is not an image apart from the life inside; it grows from the differences between spaces and carries their qualities outward. Emtedad is not the continuation of a form, but of a quality of yesterday’s landscape in today’s way of living.
