Villa_ge / Student Housing Complex / K-Studio

The proposal was a social building complex that promoted interaction between the occupants and encouraged openness to the surrounding area, whilst taking into consideration the need for privacy and security. The design attempts to bring together the present day circumstances of the KM area and the hopes and aspirations for its future, suggesting key changes that will help balance and sustain a newly revived community.

 

Currently the area of Kerameikos and Metaxourgheio has a rich complexity of building typologies and residents that form its colorful character. Unfortunately it is also a place where many drug users find refuge in the numerous empty/rundown buildings and an increasing number of restaurants, bars and clubs attract a transient crowd of people in the evenings until the early hours of the morning. This is compromising the quality of life of the people that live in the area and discourages others to choose the area as a place where they would like to live and work. It is of vital importance that the new buildings in the area embrace the local complexity and add to its colorfulness instead of promoting seclusion and gentrification.

 

The design of the VILLA_ge buildings aims to create a ‘vertical village community’ within it, through a gradient of privacy encouraging social interaction at key moments of the day and promoting an aspirational lifestyle that is sustainable on all levels. Using the concept of a neoclassical villa as motivation to design a distinctive, aspirational architectural language, each building becomes a ‘village’ of ‘villa’ modules. 

 

A flexible arrangement of individual bedroom modules can be adapted depending on the building use. For student housing the bedroom modules can have shared, en-suite or disabled access en-suite bathrooms. If the building is used for affordable housing these modules can combine to create apartments.

 

Raising the accommodation above a light filled, communal ground level means that residents can share cooking facilities, dining, and leisure time. These activities are arranged around the central courtyard space which becomes the heart of the VILLA_ge building. The courtyards allow natural cross-ventilation and maximum light flow which encourages the easy transition between internal and external space. They offer each building the opportunity to nurture the special particular activity which will help define its identity and role within the site as a whole. This could take many forms, for example a climbing wall, cinema or performance space and where VILLA_ge buildings are adjacent the courtyards can combine with increased impact and space for larger scale interventions.