PHILOSOPHY:
The project is a design proposal for 500 new student residences to accommodate undergraduates and graduates on campus, and amplify the provision for student services. The project focuses on the importance of social relations during academic years. These possibilities are almost as important as “knowledge” itself. The academic period must be lived as a moment of knowledge but also as an attempt to live one’s interests and needs as positive opportunities for personal growth and sharing. Public, semi-public and private spaces are the keywords for our design proposal.
COMMON SPACES AND GREEN SPACES
The guidelines for our architectural proposal emphasize “creativity” and “the sense of belonging to a community”. The new student residences are intended as a place for exchange and confrontation. Public spaces are the matrix idea of our architectural proposal, that is why the project exalts green areas through vibrating common and overall sheltered spaces . the pivot of the whole configuration is the public wooden square, which is located at the very centre of the whole structure. The new square becomes a public space for meetings and spare time and its form is imagined as a sort of hill embracing the 200 seats refectory. The refectory is completely invisible from the exterior, being completely camouflaged by the wooden structure and its green roof that becomes an open communal garden. Loggias, balconies and terraces are also an important part of the project because they represent the interior-exterior relationship. They offer also the possibility of having its own private moment of relax, while watching campus life going on. Most of the common public and semi-public spaces are under a row of arcades. The arcades offer a continuous and sheltered path through and overall the entire student residences structure, from the Hub (south), along the public wooden square, up to the northern part of the residences, close to the existing student accommodation.
COMMUNAL SPACES:
Most of the communal spaces are located on ground zero, following an homogeneous scheme. These spaces have different functions connected to everyday life such as : laundry rooms, storage rooms, and a secure ‘compound’ for luggage and bike storage. Each communal space is reachable by an homogeneous net of sheltered paths and it is always accessible by wheelchair bound people. Another important communal space is represented by the 200 seats refectory, that is located under the wooden public square and connects the Hub to the new student residences structure. The Hub The Hub is located in the southern part of the new complex. It stands as a sort of door that opens towards the new student residence. It contains spaces where people can read newspapers, books, surf the net or just “hang out”. Also rooms for management offices can find a place in the Hub. On the first floor there is an auditorium for public conferences and meetings. This structure leads towards the 2000 square meters public square, which is the true heart of the whole community.
PRIVATE SPACES
The Flats: The project proposes a variety of 4 cluster flats typology. The plan of each room does not vary, being thought on a modular way of assemblage. Each room of the student residence has an en-suite-shower, and measures 16 square meters. They have been designed following a binary system in order to concentrate the plumbing just on one horizontal partition However the external appearance of the whole structure is really various, depending on the way of assembling each “cube”. All the cluster flats are located along a north-south axis and they are all almost positioned to be crossed by solar rays. All rooms have broad door-windows that generously open to a variety of balconies and terraces shielded by wooden brise soleils. Just a few amount of them are facing north. The four typologies proposed in the project are the following:
TIPOLOGY 01: CLUSTER FLAT FOR 8 PEOPLE and TIPOLOGY 02: CLUSTER FLAT FOR 6 PEOPLE
It has been imagined as a sort of one-family house , where on the ground floor there is the communal kitchen, while on both on the first floor and on the second floor there are four rooms with en-suite shower. An private, internal staircase and a lift provide vertical connections. In this way the kitchen communicates directly with the upper rooms. The private dimension of this kind of solution is dominant.
TIPOLOGY 03: DUPLEX FOR 6 PEOPLE and TIPOLOGY 03: DUPLEX FOR 6 PEOPLE
The duplex typology is a flat of six rooms, each with en-suite-shower rooms, where a double height living-room becomes a place for social life. The kitchen is located on the lower level.
PHASES:
The Hub and the square are physically independent from each other and from the student residences, so they might be built in a second phase.
ACCESSIBILITY
Since the new student residences in our project stand for an opportunity for attempting high levels of social relationships, each communal and private space must be reachable by wheelchair bound people, through access and corridors widths that are all in accordance with current legislation. Horizontal movements are assured through access and corridors widths. While vertical movements are guaranteed through six lifts that are positioned next to each staircase. The ratio of disabled units (where the ensuite-bathroom is completely in accordance with current legislation) is 2% of the entire student residence.
A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH
Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system A “sustainable approach” to building should begin with reusing and “recycling” the existing building stock. Where new buildings are necessary it is essential to follow sustainable design principles such as: • the use of renewable energy and the use of resource-efficient design • the use of locally produced, natural materials The whole structure for the new student residences was designed in a compact form in order to minimize energy loss. The goal is to get an efficient insulation of the whole structure through the building’s envelope, the passive and active use of solar and geothermal energy, the installation of energy efficient windows and other energy savings’ methods:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT OUR ENERGY SAVINGS APPROACH PLEASE CONTACT US AT:
dasilvalopes.guerrazzi@gmail.com
Da Silva Lopes & Guerrazzi Architecture Agency
0039 010 85 92 097
0039 347 43 53 149
0039 347 93 44 385
