#interlocks

[preshyuh]

[sheriff-caitlyn]

Residential Architecture in Piltover

Piltover City is a collection of hundreds of years of the nation’s history, in practical terms as much as in reference to the seasons of architectural style. Different wards and tiers of the city will have unique facets; while the city might be unified in practical civic pieces like street lamps, tram lines, sun-catchers and green spaces, segments of the city might prefer a different colour stone, or paint their facades differently to the one across the park, or be designed with a different school of thought, and so on. 

I would like to discuss, in this post, the residential areas of Piltover City. My particular focus was originally on the ‘interlocks’ because I wanted to display Caitlyn’s living space as I have envisioned it. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realised Piltover only has a limited amount of uniformity when it comes to construction. Piltover City, though small, has the freedom and finance and history unlike any other, which has resulted in expansion, reconstruction, and a constant development of variations of artistic style.

Piltover City is built on a hill. They have built up, with concrete and arches, towers and tiers. They have broad streets with a focus on trams and pedestrian movement. While some of the higher tiers might have room for single-family homes with gardens and garages, most if not all residential buildings in Piltover are in the apartment style. There is not enough space to build anything sprawling, so this is practical, but they certainly know how to make it beautiful and ecologically-sound. Without further ado: residential architecture in Piltover!

Apartments in the older parts of Piltover might follow a more classic design, such as those near Heroes Walk and other monuments (like this!). Some districts might mimic the classic style without all the frou-frou extras (like this), keeping the vibe of a nice place to live while being more in-tune with what would likely be the more working-class part of town. 

The main signature of the interlock, however, is that it is very much is true to its name: it interlocks, architecturally, with the buildings either side of it, or perhaps those behind and in front. These close-packed apartments sharing walls with neighbours would lessen the amount of land needed to host a large population, and me a more efficient use of space and materials. As I have previously mentioned, Piltover has a history of building into walls, utilising previous structures as the basis for new construction, so the interlock was the next logical design step.

Interlocks come in different styles. I see something like this or this being a good example of an interlock front door situation for Faulkner Street: stairs leading to the doors, bay windows, and stone. In some parts of town there might be an upstairs and a downstairs, separated by garden railings (as seen here), or perhaps there could be something like the New York brownstones, with an entry hall past a main entryway door. 

However, for the most part, interlocks would be two-to-three stories tall, narrow, and space efficient. Piltover’s building materials would be largely stone, with facades of metal and glass, rendering it much more fire-safe than timber. They are designed to last, to be a permanent and lasting fixture in Piltover City’s skyline. Interlocks and other apartments are designed to have a place that feels like a proper, unchanging place to call home. They would have heating and running water. Some of the interlocks built into the stone of the hill and/or walls of the old city might share chimney flues and thus have access to fireplaces.

But it would be very unusual for homes in Piltover to be outfitted with kitchens. Most have only a few appliances (mostly kettles and small iceboxes), and that would be enough. Piltover law and fire-safety code would see that there would be additional expenses for ovens and stovetops. Most people who live in apartments and interlocks would choose to go to any of the eateries in the city. Food is cheap and plentiful in Piltover, after all. The ground floors of many apartments would be stores and places of business, including restaurants and eateries; if one was hungry, one could just go downstairs for an eat-in or takeaway meal. (This particular design decision comes from not only the design of suburbs where I lived in Australia and a visit to Paris, but also to the Roman insulae). Interlocks might not have a ‘ground floor’ for businesses to establish themselves, but the corner units - with additional space and visibility - might have a split-level situation: low floor business, upper floor the living space of the business’ owners.

Some streets, like Faulkner Street, are strictly residential. This could be due to zoning laws, or the composition of the material built upon. Areas of the city which are strictly residential are made sure to have amenities like laundromats, eateries, general stores, and the like, close by. No-one is to be isolated; Piltover has a focus on the health and wellbeing of its community. Certain areas in the interlock districts might have sub-level parking, though personal automobiles are rare. The sub-level parking would more be used for the hansom carriages and automaton-horses that pull them, as well as rest and repair stations for the tram business. Owning your own place to park is expensive, as it takes up space that should be used by the community. Trams are the preferred mode of travel within Piltover City, with trains servicing passage to the outer villages.

Caitlyn lives in 23B Faulkner Street. Here is, roughly, my design for her two-story interlock (please pardon the clipping, the carpets hid the doors for some reason).

On the first floor is an entryway into a narrow area, where Caitlyn has her coat-rack, and two cupboards for the storage of coats, shoes and hats. The floor is smooth-textured slate, with a striated-pattern rug. There is also a small door that connects to the shared basement-entry landing with 23A Faulkner street, though this door is mostly kept shut and locked. Caitlyn prefers to park below, then walk up to the street and enter from her home’s main entrance.

A small dense rug sits in the entryway to her open-plan kitchen and living room. Yes, Caitlyn’s apartment has a small kitchen, which would have been an expense to install and maintain, and likely results in Caitlyn paying a higher level of architectural tax every year. It is a risk to have a kitchen, but she is prepared to be responsible for it. There is a stovetop oven, a large icebox, cupboards and counters, a counter where she prepares her tea at one end and a drinks cabinet that holds her expensive whiskeys on the other. A long runner carpet prevents slipping. Broad bay windows provide ample light, so she can wash her dishes and watch the world go by, or draw the curtains as she sees fit. There is a small island counter with two chairs, usually where she sits to eat her meals. Inset in the middle of the living room is her stone fireplace, over which she has a broad hexscreen built into the wall. A dense shag-cartpet rug sits in the middle of the room, under her sofa (with its Freljordian rabbit pelt) and her coffee table. There are three bookshelves of varying sizes, holding her collected books, framed photographs and knick-knacks from her travels, and the space between has a long soft carpet. Under the wooden stairs is a small storage room, where she keeps things unsafe or inappropriate for display; the door is made of the same material as her gun-safe. The ground floor also boasts a sunroom that has Caitlyn’s piano, and another bookshelf with more personal books, and another of the dense rugs. There is also the guest room, with a double bed and an ensuite with a shower.  The stairs lead up to the second floor, with a balustraded landing that overlooks the living room.

A wooden balustrade provides support and protection from falls, while a long green runner provides the texture and anti-slip protection. The first room is the main bedroom, Caitlyn’s bedroom, with a long bookshelf on the facing wall, a wardrobe, a queen-sized bed, and a small nightstand, as well as a carpet (a different texture to the one downstairs). There is also a gun safe under the bed where Caitlyn keeps her rifle and her detective’s hat. There is an ensuite bathroom with a shower, and extra cupboards for first aid. There is also a pull-out rack for drying her hand-washed laundry (the rest is sent to Sally). With both this room and the downstairs ensuite, sinks are built into the tops of the toilets, so that there is no wasted water. At the end of the hall is Caitlyn’s home office, illuminated by skylight. There is a desk on the wall opposite the door, a collection of filing cabinets where she keeps records of personal projects, taxes, etc, and the main wall has - or had - Caitlyn’s pinboard of C-related clues and information, linked with red string. In the last five years, however, this space was more utilised in the tracking of social events and smaller-scale cases.

So there it is, Caitlyn’s Interlock and some background into residential architecture in Piltover. 

As a final honourable mention, please consider this illustration of 221B Baker Street as an idea for what a one-story interlock apartment (complete with fireplace access) might look like. The actual Sherlock Holmes Museum in London was smaller, narrower, and took up two stories, and definitely helped with my visualisation of what Caitlyn’s living space might be like, though my design for Faulkner Street was set before I visited.

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