Hasta La Ideas

Swedish firm Tengbom has designed a ten square-metre wooden house for students.

Linda Camara and Pontus Åqvist of Tengbom architects worked in collaboration with students from Lund University in Sweden to create the living unit, which is meant to be “affordable and sustainable”.

“Through an efficient layout and the use of cross-laminated wood as a construction material, the rent is reduced by 50 percent and the ecological impact and carbon footprint is also significantly reduced,” said Camara.

Inside the unit there is a small kitchenette with shelving and green storage cupboards, a small bathroom and a loft for sleeping that is accessed via small wooden steps fixed to the wall.

Two window shutters on the lower level can be folded down to use as a dining table and a desk. Under the loft area there is a hammock.

“The main issue was to design really smart units with no unnecessary space,” Camara told Dezeen. “Only well-designed space is afforded when designing for small living.”

The unit is constructed from cross-laminated wood that was sawn and shaped by timber firm Martinsons and mounted on site by Swedish building firm Ulestedt.

“Since this is a fairly new material on the Swedish market, we wanted to show the qualities, such as the possibilities to make the non-rectangular forms,” Camara said. “It is easier to make round corners than sharp 90-degrees.”

In 2014, 22 of the student units will be built and ready for students in Sweden to move into.

One of the student micro-homes is currently on display at the Virserum Art Museum as part of the Wood 2013 exhibition, which is open until 8 December 2013.

Other micro-homes featured on Dezeen recently include a cloud-shaped holiday home that sits next to a lake in south-west France and a concept for narrow apartments that fill tiny gaps between existing buildings.

See more micro-houses »
See more student housing »

Photography is by Bertil Hertzberg.

Here’s more information from the architects:

Tengbom Architects design a smart student flat

A student flat of only 10 square metres is currently exhibited at the Virserum Art Museum in the county Småland, Sweden.

Tengbom Architects has designed a student flat for students which is affordable, environmental-friendly and smart both in terms of design and choice of materials. The project is a collaboration with wood manufacturer Martinsons and real estate company AF Bostäder.

To meet the needs of students in a sustainable, smart and affordable way was the key questions when Tengbom in collaboration with students at the University of Lund was designing this student flat of 10 square meters. The unit is now displayed in Virserum Art Museum. In 2014, 22 units will be built and ready for students to move into.

To successfully build affordable student housing requires innovative thinking and new solutions. The area in each unit is reduced from current requirement, 25 square meters to 10 square meters through legal consent. This truly compact-living flat still offers a comfortable sleeping-loft, kitchen, bathroom and a small garden with a patio. Through an efficient layout and the use of cross laminated wood as a construction material the rent is reduced by 50 % and the ecological impact and carbon footprints is also significantly reduced.

Energy efficiency is a key issue when designing new buildings. Choosing right material and manufacturing methods is vital to minimise the carbon emission and therefore wood was chosen for its carbon positive qualities, and as a renewable resource it can be sourced locally to minimize transportation. The manufacturer method was chosen because of is flexible production and for it’s assembling technique which can be done on site to reduce construction time.

By exhibiting this well planned and sustainable student flat we want to challenge the conventional views and show new ways of thinking. What is good living? What materials can we use? To meet the future in a sustainable way we must be innovative in all aspects and have the courage to break new ground, says Linda Camara at Tengbom Architects.

Location: Virserums Konsthall Kyrkogatan 34, 570 80 Virserum
Architect: Linda Camara & Pontus Åqvist, Tengbom
Assistent Architect: Lina Rengstedt, Olof Nordenson, Magnus Juhlin

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by Tengbom appeared first on Dezeen.

This group of university buildings by Irish office Grafton Architects, including a limestone-clad medical school and three red-brick student housing blocks, was one of the six projects named on the 2013 Stirling Prize shortlist last week (+ slideshow).

Grafton Architects added the four new buildings to the main campus of the University of Limerick, which straddles the River Shannon in the west of Ireland. Alongside the existing sports pavilion, world music academy and health sciences facility, the structures frame a new student plaza on the north side of the campus.

The architects selected different materials for the two types of building. “The language of the medical school is that of an educational institution while the student residences appear like three large houses,” they explain.

For the four-storey medical school, they added a facade of cool grey limestone that references the local architectural vernacular. An angled colonnade directs visitors into the building, where a full-height atrium leads through to laboratories and lecture rooms.

“[The atrium is] designed as a social space with enough room to stop and chat or lean on a balustrade/shelf and view the activity of the entrance and other spaces above and below,” say the architects.

The three student housing buildings zigzag along the northern perimeter of the plaza. Each block has a brickwork exterior with recessed windows and concrete sills.

Inside, floors are laid out with living rooms and kitchens overlooking the public square in front, while bedrooms face back to the quieter northern border of the campus. There are also sheltered meeting places carved out of the base of each block, leading through to the laundry room and bicycle store beyond.

As well as these buildings, the architects also added a new concrete bus shelter to the campus, with steps and ramps that negotiate the sloping ground.

The University of Limerick project was named as one of the Stirling Prize nominees last week. Other projects to make the shortlist include a house in the ruins of a twelfth-century castle and the overhaul of a notorious housing estate.

Grafton Architects is led by architects Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell. Last year the studio was awarded the Silver Lion for most promising practice at the Venice Architecture Biennale for an installation celebrating the architecture of Paulo
 Mendes
 da
 Rocha. See more architecture by Grafton Architects »

Photography is by Denis Gilbert, apart from where stated otherwise.

Here’s a project description from Grafton Architects:

Medical School, Student Residences and Bus Shelter at the University of Limerick

The University of Limerick, in the South West of Ireland occupies a large territory, formerly a Demesne, and is situated on both sides of the lower reaches of the river Shannon, the longest and largest river in Ireland. Part of its most recent expansion to the north of this great river, accessible by pedestrian bridge from the existing campus, provides for the construction of a new medical school building and accommodation buildings for students attending the facility. These new buildings are also intended to address a large public open space which will ultimately become the focal point for this expansion of the campus to the North.

The aspiration is to combine faculty buildings and residences in a manner which encourages overlap and contributes to the life of the public spaces at the University. Aspects of the formal character are derived from an interpretation of the campus master plan which requires an organic approach to the making of public spaces on the north side of the river Shannon. Here the ground is sloping and remnants of the agrarian landscape pattern are still evident in the form of old field patterns and hedgerows.

This new suite of buildings combines with three existing, neighbouring institutions, the Sports Pavillion, the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance and the Health Sciences Building, in order to make a new public space. The new buildings consist of a medical school, three blocks of student housing and a canopy/pergola forming a bus and bicycle shelter.

The Medical School, the last in a series of set pieces, acts as an anchor around which the other buildings now loosely rotate. The language of the medical school is that of an educational institution while the student residences appear like three large houses. The concrete bus shelter, together with the residences combine with the medical school to form a loose edge to the public space. The bus shelter canopy, steps and ramps negotiate the level change to the sports pavilion beyond.

The central space slopes gently to the west. Three oak trees, stone seats and steps occupy a central level platform subtly providing a focal point before the space moves out, fracturing at the edges to connect to the residences, car parking and other faculty buildings. The surfaces of the public space move from hard to soft, south sloping grassed spaces, designed with and without furniture to provide for leisure and lingering. The buildings stand guard facing the public space, distinguished by their material.

Limestone is used to represent the ‘formal’ central medical school, making reference to the limestone territory of County Clare in which this side of the campus is located. The stone wall is folded, profiled and layered in response to orientation, sun , wind, rain and public activity. A colonnade to the south and west corner acts as a gathering and entrance space. In contrast the north and east walls are more mute.

In response to the deep plan, the roof-form is modulated to light multiple spaces, including the central circulation space, the clinical skills labs, the corridors, and a small roof terrace.

An open central stair connecting all of the primary spaces, threads through all levels of the interior, designed as a social space with enough room to stop and chat or lean on a balustrade/shelf and view the activity of the entrance and other spaces above and below.

Brick follows through to the residences from the existing accommodation buildings behind. Here the material is given depth and the facades deeply carved providing a form of threshold between the domestic interior and the public space that they overlook. All living spaces address the public space to the south east with the more private study bedrooms facing north east or north west.

The undercroft of the residences is carved away providing archways allowing pedestrian movement from the carpark and bus park to the north as well as forming sheltered social spaces for students. Large gateways open into the entrance courts of the housing blocks where stairs, lift, bicycles bins and common laundry facilities are.

Client: Plassey Campus Developments
Contractor: P.J Hegarty and Sons

Size: Medical School 4300m2, Student Housing 3,600m2, Pergola 180m2, Piazza 1.2ha,
Date: Completed December 2012
Location: University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

Project Managers: Kerin Contract Management
Structural and Civil Engineers: PUNCH Consulting Engineers
Mechanical and Electrical: Don O’Malley & Partners
Quantity Surveyors: Nolan Ryan Tweed
Health & Safety: Willis Consulting
Fire Safety and Access: G. Sexton & Partners

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the University of Limerick by Grafton Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

The next intake of architecture students at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia will be accommodated in modular student housing with stark concrete interiors (+ slideshow).

Designed by Spanish studios H Arquitectes and dataAE, the housing isn’t assigned exclusively to architecture students but it is located alongside the Vallès Architecture School in Barcelona.

The project comprises a pair of parallel two-storey blocks positioned either side of a central terrace. Both buildings sit in the lowest point of a sloping site, which allowed the architects to create ground-level entrances on both storeys with a series of first-floor bridges.

Each of the 57 rooms comes with its own kitchenette and small washroom, but otherwise the interiors are left bare and unpainted with exposed concrete ceiling beams overhead.

“From the beginning we decided to give the students an empty home,” Xavier Ros Majó of H Arquitectes told Dezeen. “We decided to use the structural concrete of the modules as a finished interior material, so no plaster and paint were used. We actually love that the architecture students will have the opportunity of designing their home, –inside at least.”

A single module was used for each rectangular room, even though the client favoured modules containing two or more L-shaped rooms. This means all modules can be individually removed, relocated or added to in the future, as the needs of the university change.

The exteriors of both buildings are clad with galvanised steel. The architects have also recently added a polycarbonate roof over the central terrace so that it can be used as a sheltered venue for school events.

H Arquitectes has been established in Barcelona for over ten years. Past projects include a school gym in Barberà del Vallès and a wooden house in Vacarisses. See more architecture by H Architectes.

See more architecture in Spain »

Photography is by Adrià Goula.

Above: site plan – click above for larger image

Here’s a project description from H Arquitectes:

The new dwelling house for university students is located in the same block as the Vallès Architecture School. The project proposed intends to keep its balance among the existing buildings, outside areas and the new dwelling house, which is formed from two parallel to street blocks layed out over two floors and separated by a central atrium.

Above: block plan – click above for larger image

For it is a dwelling house for architecture students, we have come up with a program that permits intense connections among the users both individual and group level, owing to the interior flexibility of the apartments and the potential use of the atrium as an event space.

Above: apartment plan – click above for larger image

The project banks on industrialized construction by using just one housing module type made of pre-formed concrete without partition walls. Each unit has just the necessary fixed elements, simplifying finishing and installations. Most of the components are installed and assembled by dry-build systems so every module and its finishing can be dismantled and reused or highly recyclable. The building is laid out over two floors in order to take advantage of the existing topography making accessible entrances without the need of using elevators and to reduce a 50 percent of square meters in corridors and stairs. The central atrium is covered in order to create an intermediate bioclimatic space that makes increase the energy efficiency of the building and, at the same time, economizes the building enclosure.

Above: apartment section – click above for larger image

The cycle of life analysis demonstrates that this project saves up to 50 percent the energy associated to construction materials and a 70 percent the energy demand in respect to standard buildings according to CTE regulations.

Above: site section – click above for larger image

Project: Student Housing (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya)
Situation: Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona.
Authors: H Arquitectes (David Lorente, Josep Ricart, Xavier Ros, Roger Tudó) dataAE (Claudi Aguiló, Albert Domingo)
Collaborators: Ana Tamayo, Toni Jimenez, Blai Cabrero, Montse Fornés, Carla Piñol, Anna Bonet, Montse Quiròs (H Arquitectes), ÀBAC enginyers, Societat Orgànica
Customer: UPC / UTE Compact Hàbit i Constructora d’Aro

Above: long site section – click above for larger image

Competition: 1st Prize
Year of realization: 2009-12
Surface constructed: 2.400 m2
Constructor: Constructora d’Aro

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by H Arquitectes and dataAE appeared first on Dezeen.

This student housing block in Norway by MEK Architects is named MySpace, as the architects imagined the building as a social network where each of the 116 residents can get to know one another (+ slideshow).

Above: photograph is by Matthias Herzog

MEK Architects, comprising Spanish studio Murado & Elvira and architect Enrique Krahe, designed the housing block for the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim as part of the Europan housing design competition.

Above: photograph is by Matthias Herzog

Rather than group the building into separate apartments, the team decided to create large social areas that would unite every student, including a large lounge and a shared kitchen where everyone has their own separate storage area and fridge.

“The shared kitchen is the space where common life is negotiated,” explain architects Juan Elvira, Clara Murado and Enrique Krahe, and they describe how this ground floor space is used for social activities such as pancake contests and cooking seminars.

A lounge occupies most of the first floor and is divided into different areas, which students are encouraged to customise to suit their day-to-day activities.

Above: photograph is by Matthias Herzog

“The building can be looked upon as something that is unfinished, because it calls for permanent completion by its inhabitants in the search for a more satisfying community life,” say the architects.

Bedrooms line one edge of this lounge and also fill the four floors above, while study areas are positioned in the corridors and on balcony terraces, allowing students to easily work in groups.

The building is located at the end of two existing housing blocks and copies the roof pitches of its neighbours.

The facade is clad with pine and is painted in shades of grey and black.

Other student housing projects on Dezeen include a building modelled on a stack of baskets and a tower block with a patchwork of brown panelling on its facade.

See more stories about student housing »

Photography is by Miguel de Guzman, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s an explanation from MEK Architects:

‘MySpace’ student’s housing in Trondheim (Norway) is the outcome of a winning entry of Europan 9 by MEK Architects, Clara Murado, Juan Elvira and Enrique Krahe. The competition brief called for a student house between the Nidelva River and the main University Campus.

MySpace residence proposes the compression, transfer and conditioning of the relational capacities of urban space. Soon the client (a student-run association named SIT that looks after student room availability) showed the need to fit in some extra 40% rooms within the original volume, also lowering the already tight budget.

Above: photograph is by Matthias Herzog

Assuming the existing urban conditions, the student housing detaches as much as possible from the surrounding buildings and shapes its volume in order to extract potential from the views and sun. Open-air terraces are spread around the building. Through them, students can experience outside conditions and relate with the city and the far views.

In order to stress a local initiative that intends to promote Trondheim as a wood-friendly city, and also seeking new challenges about wood use in large buildings, the entire exterior volume of the building is cladded with fir (pine) wooden planks, displaying different treatments, compositions and layouts.

As a result of a special regulation that considers Elgesetergate as a road instead a street, no windows for rooms are allowed to be opened on that elevation. The front and the rear are thus conceived as thick containing membranes, while only corridors and lounge are able to look over the street.

The core of the building contains a multipurpose lounge with no hierarchy, or spatial definition, in which different ambiances are located. Room floors surround this lounge. The general layout is articulated by stripes occupying the space as they approach or distance the existing limits. Rooms mimic the building’s internal scheme, structured in functional bands (storage, prefabricated bathroom and a bed).

Since the construction started, and more details about the building were made public, a vibrant debate arose among residents-to be in specialized blogs and social networks. Architecture has still a long path to explore collecting data and seeking ways of transferring feedback into the making, just as information architects or videogame designers would do.

Above: ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: first floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: second and third floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: fourth floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: fifth floor plan – click above for larger image

Above: roof plan – click above for larger image

Above: cross section – click above for larger image

Above: cross section evacuation stairs – click above for larger image

Above: cross section – click above for larger image

Above: longitudinal section – click above for larger image

Above: south elevation – click above for larger image

Above: east elevation – click above for larger image

Above: north elevation – click above for larger image

Above: east elevation – click above for larger image

Above: exploded axonometric diagrams – click above for larger image

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by MEK Architects appeared first on Dezeen.