Apartimentum by Kleffel Papay Warncke Architects and Notholt Lighting Design

Hamburg

Architects & Firms

“Smart” homes are typically customized for private individuals, but improved wireless technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the pervasiveness of digital tablets is facilitating such intelligence for multifamily dwellings. German tech entrepreneur and investor Lars Hinrichs developed the Apartimentum, an innovative 20-unit building with wireless connectivity throughout. Notholt Lighting Design worked with Osram, whose Lightify Pro Gateway was installed in each apartment, to implement 21st-century LED lighting in the renovated 1908 building. Each tenant has a wall-mountable iPad mini that connects to a MESH network via Wi-Fi. A pre-installed mobile app manages and programs tunable-white PAR16 and linear cove lights capable of circadian sequences that adapt to actual daylight conditions. Based on this principle, large fixtures in the stairwells mimic skylights for comfortable passage into and out of the building.

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Joann Gonchar, FAIA, LEED AP, is deputy editor at Architectural Record. She joined RECORD in 2006, after working for eight years at its sister publication, Engineering News-Record. Before starting her career as a journalist, Joann worked for several architecture firms and spent three years in Kobe, Japan, with the firm Team Zoo, Atelier Iruka. She earned a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University. She is licensed to practice architecture in New York State.