Usually, when a person hears the expression "penthouse with a view to the north", in his head immediately there are associations with something unique and very expensive, with what is considered to be elite real estate. Indeed, if you ask how much it costs only one square meter of such housing, you immediately realize that such a pleasure can only afford the most influential and wealthy people. However, not everyone has a clear idea of what a penthouse is. Let's try to figure out together how this housing differs from other types, and what it is.
A bit of history
In order to better understand what a penthouse is, we’ll look at how this word appeared. To date, there are two historical versions explaining its origin. According to the first, in England in the 16th century the penthouse appeared as a military necessity. At that time, battles often took place, and for placing soldiers in ordinary houses located near the site of upcoming military operations, a room was attached for a while, which had a sloping roof. However, there are people who, in what a penthouse is, tend to trust the second version more. According to her, the origin of this word is due to the fact that in the 20s of the last century, the New York bohemia loved to have noisy parties and grandiose receptions. Especially for this, real mansions were arranged on the roofs of skyscrapers.
What is a penthouse in our time?
Now this type of housing is usually built behind the front vertical side of the house so as to be able to use the roof for a tennis court, pool or conservatory. The modern penthouse (photos of such housing are often found in magazines devoted to luxury real estate) has from two to four levels with ceiling heights up to ten meters and an area of 200 to 600 meters. The highlight of such housing is panoramic glazing, which allows you to enjoy a breathtaking view of the different sides of the world. The penthouse is not in vain considered a luxury item. The fact is that in a house there can be only one housing of this kind, which means its uniqueness. The developers are well aware of this and therefore often arrange for them a personal underground parking and a separate elevator. It is worth noting that multi-level apartments, which are located on the upper floors and have a relatively large living area, it would be wrong to call penthouses. This is explained by the fact that they usually do not have those unique features that are inherent in this elite segment of real estate: panoramic glazing, an open terrace and a view on 3-4 sides.
How to spell this word?
In Russian, this term appeared relatively recently. Nevertheless, his pronunciation and spelling has already acquired some differences from the original, English. So, instead of the letter “z”, our compatriots often use “s”. This is due to the fact that the word "penthouse" is easier to pronounce. And sometimes they completely miss the letter "t". If you look into the dictionary of foreign words, we will see that the latter should not be done, but the use of “c” in this word has taken root, and the option “penthouse” is more correct.