Apartment living is now commonplace, but just a few centuries ago it was the characteristic feature of European court architecture. As PhD researcher Robert Gorny has studied, the architecture of apartments revealed something about the resident's status. In his thesis, he has written a genealogy of the apartment.
The linear organisation of dwellings and living space first began to take shape in the palace architecture of the Italian states, France, England and Spain between the 15th and 17th centuries. Its purpose was to provide an order of ranking for residents with access to the King. In addition to the King and Queen, it was only the Pope and some cardinals who had their own apartments. Visitor would follow a parcours from the entrance gate across the courtyard to a grand staircase, from which they could accessed a suite of rooms. “The higher the visitors’ social status was, the deeper they were permitted to enter the suite,” explains Gorny.
The antechamber also dates back to this period. First appearing in Italian palazzos, it became a waiting room in places such as the Palace of Versailles. Their purpose was to create a spatial separation between spaces for reception and retreat. And in politics, this separation was used strategically to create a distance between rulers and subjects. The entire building was organized in a very hierarchical manner. In the 16th-17th century, however, this hierarchy started to change. For instance the king and queen’s apartments, typically stacked on top of another, came to be arranged symmetrically on the same floor. This provides a striking illustration of how women’s position at court was changing.
Appartamenti
The juxtaposition of several apartments, not just for different residents but also for different types of receptions, marks a spatial transformation in residential architecture. However, this transformation did not appear from nowhere, notes Gorny in his thesis “A Flat Theory: Toward a Genealogy of Apartments, 1540–1752”. It was preceded by a conceptual transformation. In as early as 1540, Sebastiano Serlio introduced the concept of “appartamenti”, precisely not for rooms that were organised as living quarters, but for quarter-like spatial organizations in general. A geometric principle, that would gradually unleash a new creative force within architectural planning.
Largely inspired by two residences Sergio built in France, nobles of the robe (French: noblesse de robe) in Paris would later copy the construction style of court architecture in their hôtels. In the 17th century, these residences would comprise a state apartment (‘grands appartements’), used only for official receptions, marriages, or special soirées, as well as more compact private apartments (‘appartement de commodités’). In the meantime, the technical development and planning technique of apartment construction was also progressing. Slowly but surely, rules emerged that apartments had to meet, including descriptions of the functions of various rooms. In the late 17th century, this early version of regulating planning focused more on the ‘use and nature’ of the rooms.
Convenance
The PhD thesis ends with the contribution made by theoretician Jacques-François Blondel in his planning treatise ‘L’architecture Francoise’ of 1751. It provides a complete technical description of how the different types of apartment should be planned in order to achieve convenance (“propriety”)—the main objective of the architect.
Every aristocratic dwelling contained an entire system of apartments made up of three suites: a state apartment, an appartement de société, and a private suite. Mediated via the 19th century Bourgeois flat, where this system changed towards a semi-public area, bedrooms, and service spaces, “this division into three can still be found in the organization of today’s apartments,” says Gorny. “It may look modern, but it’s actually ancient.”
After his PhD, Gorny intends to follow up “A Flat Theory” by exploring how apartments went on to develop into the apartment blocks of the 20th century. In that form, this 16th century concept would ultimately conquer the world.