Social life in a typical apartment building is limited. Aside from a few common areas or the infrequent passing-by of a neighbor in the hallway, apartment dwellers can sometimes feel as if they’re living alone in large buildings full of other people they rarely see.

Brooklyn-based developer Tankhouse is hoping to shift that paradigm with a series of new residential buildings in the borough that reimagine the way that people move into and through apartment buildings. The buildings take cues from a classic element of New York architecture: the apartment building stoop.

“One of the things that people associate with Brooklyn is the predominant building type, which is brownstones. And the way that brownstones relate to the street is through the hybrid space of the stoop,” says Tankhouse co-founder Sebastian Mendez. “It’s private but it also has this important public component because it’s where people interact with their neighbors.”

For a new 18-unit condo project that’s nearing completion, Tankhouse teamed with Brooklyn-based architects SO—IL, which is known for modern and minimal designs for buildings including a social housing project in Leon, Mexico, and art galleries around the world. SO—IL’s approach was to bring the public-private hybrid of the stoop inside the building, and inject it into the space in front of every unit.

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