Name: upto35
Location: Athens, Greece
Year: 2009
Type: urban planning + student housing
Status: competition
Coauthor: philipp reichelt

The historical Kerameikos and Metaxourgeio district is probably the least populated part of downtown Athens and one of the most diverse in terms of population and land use. The developer wanted a proposal for a student housing with 18 units and an urban strategy, which uses the new building as initial impact for further development in a rather neglected neighbourhood.

We propose a building type that consists of 2 elements in the form of a mushroom: ‘The stem’ containing the core and the roof of the ground floor. Here we will locate the common functions of the student housing such as a kitchen area, a lounge and storage space for bicycles. In ‘the cap’, the upper floors of the building, there will be 6 apartments per floor and a common bathroom. Due to local regulations, the staircase has to be open and therefore guarantees natural light and ventilation.

This method is also used for the surrounding buildings: in the initial stage, ‘the stem’ could serve for temporary single-storey uses like cafés, galleries or just public spaces offering sun shade during daytime. On top of this existing plinth housing units or office space could be developed if required. According to that principle, all of the adjacent buildings could be built and even be realised in phases. That generates a great variety of contemporary and innovative forms of urban living.