Vertical extension of a Soviet-era multi-storey residential building on Brīvības iela: four light-steel loft apartments added on top of the existing roof structure, plus a full rebuild of the building's common areas.
The existing building was a 1970s five-storey residential block in good structural condition but with a tired flat roof and no elevator access to the top. The developer wanted to add a habitable floor on top — four loft apartments with private terraces — without disrupting the residents below.
We started with a structural audit of the existing slabs and columns, then designed a light-steel frame for the new floor that distributes load onto the existing column grid. The new floor was prefabricated off-site and lifted into place over four working days, minimising the time the building was exposed to weather.
The original elevator shaft was extended one floor up, and a new shared rooftop garden was built around the four loft units. Common areas were renovated in parallel.
All four loft apartments were sold off-plan before topping-out. The existing residents got upgraded common areas and a new elevator stop for free, and the developer recovered the project cost roughly 2.4× through the loft sales. Delivered on the original schedule and within 3% of the original budget.
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