apartment building

[keannu]

Does this "building" mean just the structure of apartment or the construction itself? The translation goes "construction", but it seems wrong. But if they mean just a structure, "apartment" itself could be enough, why did they add building as well?

ex)For Irving and Sara Selis, who are blind, it was a dream come true. For years, they talked about an apartment building planned especially for people who couldn’t see or who had other disabilities. The Selises knew just what it should be like. So, with the help of $11 million from the United States government, the 12-story apartment building, with room for 320 people, was finished. What made it so different? Apartment and elevator numbers were in Braille, which is a raised way of writing that the blind can read. Special rails in the lobby and halls helped blind people find their way. Doorways were extra wide so that wheelchairs could pass through easily. And each apartment had special buttons so that people could call for help in a hurry. Thanks to the Selises, disabled people .

 

[keannu]

This is confusing, it can be either action or a place.

 

[emsr2d2]

An apartment building is a building which contains many separate apartments. In BrE, it's called "a block of flats". The building in your piece is a multi-occupancy structure in which each individual apartment is designed with the specific disability in mind.

 

[5jj]

This is confusing, it can be either action or a place.

It isn't confusing. If we were to talk about the action, we'd say '... bulding the apartment(s)' or, 'the building of the apartment(s). Note the words in your text - ' an apartment building' and 'the 12-story apartment building, with room for 320 people, was finished'.

 

[JohnParis]

For years, they talked about an apartment building planned especially for people who couldn’t see or who had other disabilities.
Why did they add building as well?

You could compare an apartment building with a university classroom building. Both are one large construction containing individual structures designed for occupancy by people. Here is a link to pictures of the Boutique Monaco Tower Apartment Building in Seoul. It was designed to accommodate blind and disabled tenants and has received several awards.

Boutique Monaco, Tower Apartment Building in Seoul - Architecture – Construction – House Design on Efficient.Ws