Apartament Typologies in the Officials Houses in Tirana before 1944. Case Study: Two Apartments Type Per Floor

This paper seeks to value the design of apartments in a typical housing product of officials in Tirana before 1944 and emphasizes typology dwelling as a mean and important factor towards living conditions. The first phase of the study represents some of the samples that are selected for this paper, providing the data of housing typologies through the characteristics of each building. Examples are collated for the purpose of understanding the dwelling typologies designed for this type of residential building. The information taken from the plans of the housings helped in creating some tables with all the important data for each lodging. Once the general information regarding the number of rooms for each apartment, the surfaces of spaces, number of beds, etc., had been brought into focus, and the statistical data presented through tables collected, the search continues with the results and conclusions. The purpose of this paper is to understand the conditions of living in that period through the designing of apartments and their plans organization and spaces. The search arrives in a conclusion that in the residential houses with two apartments per floor are mostly used the big apartments with five to six beds. The social position of the families accommodated in these houses had a great influence in designing the dwellings because they were not considered just simple labours. Referring the number of rooms and the service spaces inside several apartments the research leads to an evident conclusion that these dwellings for officials fulfilled much more than basic conditions of living for these families.