An environmentally friendly estate, designed in the idea of co-living, intended for a thousand residents. These were the requirements set by the organizers for the participants of the Coliving California competition. They were best met by Alicja Kowalewska, Renata Waclawowicz and Tomasz Wegrzyn - students of the Faculty of Architecture at the Wroclaw University of Technology. Their project for a housing development in Cupertino, won first prize.
The goal of the international competition Coliving California organized by the Archasm.in portal was to design a utopian, environmentally friendly housing estate in the spirit of co-living. The estate, located in Cupertino in the United States, was to cover an area of three hectares and accommodate about a thousand residents.
The architecture of the estate is composed of repetitive, modular units, variously located
© Alicja Kowalewska, Renata Wacławowicz, Tomasz Węgrzyn
co-living in Silicon Valley
The organizer of the competition stressed that California and Silicon Valley are places that concentrate a strongly growing high-tech industry. Unfortunately, the large disparity between the demand for workers and the availability of housing is one of the important factors that makes real estate prices soar. As a result, there is a shortage of housing for people who are not among the highest earners. The solution, therefore, would be affordable co-living, which would not only reduce the costs associated with renting a place to live, but also allow modern nomads to establish social relationships more quickly.
Of the works submitted for the competition, the jury recognized as the best the team of students from Wroclaw University of Technology, consisting of: Alicja Kowalewska, Renata Waclawowicz, Tomasz Wegrzyn, awarding it first prize. The project submitted by the students is a synthetic version of a more developed concept they are currently working on as part of the course Environmentally Friendly Residential Architecture, taught by Dr. Anna Berbesz.
The authors were inspired by the urban layout of neighboring neighborhoods and medieval towns
© Alicja Kowalewska, Renata Wacławowicz, Tomasz Węgrzyn
kind city
Participants in the competition had to design a city for a thousand people, and an additional difficulty was a plot of land located on a slope. The students of Wroclaw University of Technology, inspired by the urban layout of neighboring districts, created a street layout in the spirit of a soft city, also referring to spatial solutions of medieval cities.
One of the biggest design challenges was the large number of residents per designed area, and thus the high density of buildings. However, the concept we presented was based on the idea of a benevolent city. We paid special attention to the issue of the scale of the proposed buildings, thanks to which the high density, instead of overwhelming, turned into an asset," say the awarded authors.
The characteristic solution is the displacement of residential modules,
which together form a single residential unit
© Alicja Kowalewska, Renata Wacławowicz, Tomasz Węgrzyn
The cubic volumes of the designed buildings became a tissue shaping external spaces, separating urban interiors and framing views. In this way, a polycentric layout was created, focusing services and individual groups of residents around five squares. Connecting them is a pathway of intense color, expanding and spilling out to the sides like a river, which is also the main public space. The path includes recreational, exhibition and sports spaces, and the whole is complemented by greenery tightly filling the spaces in between.
orderly disorder
The architecture of the estate consists of repetitive, modular units. Despite this, a non-monotonous, organic, picturesque layout has been achieved by arranging them differently in relation to each other and rotating some by a fixed angle, as well as irregular relief.
This makes the feature of the establishment an apparent, but in fact orderly disorder. When seen from a bird's eye view, the urban planning of the new estate resembles a peculiar, expressive pattern similar to those that characterize nearby residential neighborhoods, the students add.
The designed buildings consist of three stories
© Alicja Kowalewska, Renata Wacławowicz, Tomasz Węgrzyn
The authors designed a dozen three-story buildings with a usable attic. A maximum of 24 people would live in one building. When designing apartments in the spirit of co-living, an extremely important aspect was the introduction of a clear hierarchy of privacy and space scale. With this procedure, the architects provided a whole range of spaces suitable for people with different social needs. These are, in turn, the most private spaces, to which only one or two people have access, namely bathrooms and bedrooms. Next are spaces for eating and preparing meals, dedicated to residents of two bedrooms. The next, semi-public vertical common spaces, combine the functions of vertical communication and living room, allowing people to spend time with roommates from across the residential unit. Public squares provide the context for larger events, and the pedestrian avenue connecting them functions as an integrating element for all residents of the development.
Openwork, vertical communal space
© Alicja Kowalewska, Renata Wacławowicz, Tomasz Węgrzyn
In order to give a more distinct identity and unique character, each of the above-mentioned types of places was assigned a different, sometimes completely unusual, way of separating spaces. Private spaces were separated from the rest, most common, by vertical partitions in the form of walls and horizontal partitions in the form of ceilings. Semi-private spaces are already separated only by horizontal partitions and a temperature difference. Semi-private, vertical common spaces are defined by increased ceiling height and exposure to sunlight. The last element in the hierarchy, the avenue that concentrates urban life, is distinguished by its color, the authors explain.
A distinctive solution is also the displacement of the residential modules, which together form a single residential unit, by half a floor relative to each other, which allows for a better fit in the relief of the terrain and greater freedom in the formation of vertical communication.
simple architecture
The simple, conservative architecture was designed with attention to detail and sensitivity to environmental concerns. Because of the warm California climate, the authors took into account the problems of ventilation and insulation of the materials used. Cellular polycarbonate and cork, which are the finishing materials, have good insulating properties and reduce heat buildup. The different floors of the common area are connected by a wooden staircase with jute openwork "partitions." The space is surrounded by polycarbonate walls, which guarantee adequate sunlight.
The basic construction materials are, in the residential parts, cross-laminated timber, and in the case of the openwork vertical common space, timber framing. The materials chosen are durable, natural, and have a mostly negative carbon footprint and age well.
The estate is characterized by simple forms and modularity of construction
© Alicja Kowalewska, Renata Wacławowicz, Tomasz Węgrzyn
Simple forms, modularity of construction, or optimal use of materials are just some of the eco-friendly solutions of the co-living estate. The premise also promotes public transportation and bicycles, minimizing car transportation within the estate and offering all the most necessary services within a short walking distance, the competition winners conclude.
Staying in the coliving thread, also read about the award-winning design of an estate for the elderly in Rabat, by Nina Lipowska, and a multi-family building in Opole, designed by Marta Winkler.
