Status Floors

Historically around the world, the wealthiest residents in cities lived on the "Nobile floor", or floor one. Usually this was located a couple of steps up off the ground or even an entire level off the ground in some instances. While most countries have variations of this format, historically this architectural feature and its connection to the wealthiest of populations has remained the same. 

I was first introduced to this in undergrad history class when we studied the villas of Palladio. The workers or servants of the house would work below on household chores and it was also used for the storage of goods. 

Palladio's Villa Foscari

This type of organization was adapted by the French when Haussmann redesigned Paris housing to what we think of today. In this instance commercial spaces were placed on the ground floor, the wealthier on the piano nobile floor with exceedingly less wealth as the apartments got taller. It was more desirable for the wealthiest to live on the lower floors because of fire risk at the time. 

Section of Haussmann's Paris Apartments

In Koolhaas' "Life in the Metropolis or The Culture of Congestion", He talks about how the futuristic technologies from the fantasy lands of Coney Island started to weave their way into the city of New York. What seemed to be tools for fun turned into reality in the city. One of these specifically was the elevator, Koolhaas says,

A slender steel structure supports 84 horizontal planes, all the size of the original plot. Each of these artificial levels is treated as a virgin site to establish a private domain around a single countryhouse and its attendant facilities such as stables, servants’ cottages, gazebos, etc., all implanted in an airborne meadow. The sky scraper just another evolution of this. the penthouse an expanded and elevated version of the noble level.

I can't help but think how a technology that would seem to democratize housing has mostly created a new variation on the villa or Haussmann's apartments. In these earlier times, the wealthy valued safety from fire and minimal stair usage. But with the addition of the elevator and fire codes, the wealthier began to value views of the city and the penthouse became the new piano nobile or villa in the sky. 

New York is overflowing with these slender steel structures he speaks of, most of these apartment buildings. However, the difference between the Haussmann House or the Villa is the less wealthy cannot even afford to live on the lower floors of these buildings. Most live in the furthest reaches of Queens or Harlem, which is increasingly becoming less affordable. I have to wonder what the future of a city is where those who keep the city running and the shelves stocked cannot even live in it.