Typology: Industrial Era

1. Physical Characteristics
   

The typical Industrial Era Apartment building is about five stories tall, with an attic. It maintains the “Golden Era” organization of a central stairway with apartments on either side and an entrance onto the street, however, these buildings tend to be larger in scale than Golden Era buildings. They have a minimum frontage of about 16 meters, and are 10 to 12 meters deep and usually have five stories, with at least one attic level and a basement. Roofs can either be peaked or leveled off at the attic level. The minor streets they face tend to be around 12 meters wide, while the arterial streets tend to be around 18 meters wide.

Protrusions on the rear of these buildings for kitchens, lavatories and secondary stairwells became common after the turn of the century, resulting in a “haircomb” pattern which maximized floor-space at the expense of light and useful space in the courtyard. Units were usually arranged perpendicular to the street, with living rooms on the street side and bedrooms and the kitchen on the courtyard side. Two-room apartments, with one bedroom and one living room were very common. The length of frontage of buildings of this type is more variable than for Goldern Era apartment houses, although it is still unusual for a single building to dominate an entire blockface.

Industrial Era apartment buildings were adaptable to specific sites and block shapes, however their forms are more standardized than Golden Era apartment houses. Often buildings which fronted onto the street were extended away from the street at a 90o angle making a T or L-shape. U- and O-shaped buildings also occur. L’s, T’s, wings and backbuildings were also combined in a wide variety of forms to best maximize the block shape.

1. Uses

Industrial Era apartment buildings were primarily used as a residence. In keeping with the Golden Age model, the Industrial Era apartment buildings were stratified based on socio-economic class. The first and second floors were the most prized, and often feature elaborate ornamentation on their outer features. Ground floor units could be low-rent residential, due to the lack of privacy, or have commercial or productive uses. Basement units are present but tend to be much less prominent than in apartments from the previous era. Very small ground-level windows offer little access to natural light.

Construction Materials and Appearance
Construction materials were almost always red brick and painted stucco until about 1900. Stucco ornamentation could be quite elaborate, especially on the 2nd and 3rd floors. A common motif for buildings of this type is a stucco facade on the ground floor and sometimes 1st floor with joint lines rendered in imitation of ashlar masonry. After 1900 yellow brick without stucco becomes more popular. Roofs were tiled with slate or made to look as such in the earlier period to about 1900, often with the roof flattened off above the attic level. After 1900, pitched red-tile roofs become more popular.  

2. Density/Capacity

Industrial Era apartment buildings in the modern era typically have two units per floor per stairwell, and one stairwell every 10-20 meters. [don’t know family size from this period]

3. Tenure

It was common for buildings of this type to be constructed by speculators as a profitable venture. The first building finance company was established in 1851, allowing the construction to be financed by loans as a profitable venture.

A law passed in 1975 gave the tenants of any building put up for sale the right to purchase it collectively from the seller before it could be offered to any other buyer. This lead to the creation of many co-ops, especially in older buildings, including many Industrial Era apartment buildings.

Other apartment buildings continue to be privately held, or exist as condominiums of “freehold flats”.

4. Energy Usage/Efficiency

According to Danish Building Research Institute, the typical energy usage for an apartment building from 1850-1930, is relatively high, however can be improved significantly with refurbishment. The demand for heating in an unrefurbished Industrial Era apartment building is estimated to be 127.2 kWh per m2 annually (kWh/m2a), falling to 70.2 - 36.5 kWh/m2a with an “advanced refurbishment”. The CO2 emissions for this type of building are estimated to be 66.1kg annually per square meter, falling to 32/m2 with an advanced refurbishment, which is significantly less than Golden Era apartments.

5. Adaptations

Since the mid 20th century, government and private efforts have improved the quality of many of the Industrial Era apartment buildings in Copenhagen. Early efforts to reduce overcrowding and improve living conditions lead to the demolition of courtyard buildings and the installation of private toilets and bathrooms. The opening of courtyard space has allowed improvement of courtyards with landscaping and playgrounds by block committees with city support. Efforts to increase increase home values have lead to the combination of small units into larger units and installation of balconies. Some buildings have also been equipped with elevators and roof-top decks.

6. Variations

Like the Golden Era apartment house, this type of building was suitable for modification as an institutional office or educational building. Its pattern could be repeated infinitely to fill any needed parcel or block size, a practice that became increasingly common for workers housing and ultimately evolved into the “welfare state apartment block” of the 20th century. Further from the city center Industrial Era apartments were more likely to be three or four stories rather than five or six. As time went on these buildings became increasingly specialized by social class, another trend which lead to the evolution of the “welfare state apartment block” type, which is described in the next section.