No phase in life offers such plethora of experiences as when being a student. Emotions and moods rush from intimacy and concentration to exuberance and celebration. No time is as social and diverse and never is one’s mind as open. The way we live in these years fundamentally impacts the person we become. A typology that responds to this condition is essential.

The city of Athens and particularly the districts of Kerameikos and Metaxourgeio are characterized by a potpourri of building types, most of them closed and senseless, facing narrow streets. Backyards dictated by code are left dirty, unused and out of sight. Life in these neighborhoods has an edge, is intense and diverse, yet its current urbanism does not allow this life to infuse the blocks.

Shifting the allowable massing on the lot and aligning it along the party wall, opens up a range of possibilities. A common yard, generated through a required 4.55 m setback, allows the characteristic urbanity to become an integral part of the living experience, while providing a communal zone as buffer between the public and intimate realms of life. It offers a new type of porous urbanity - one that filters rather than shields. The yards can proliferate to form an internal network, reviving the city blocks from within. The strategy can be applied in variations (back to back or back to front), thus diversifying the qualities of the shared spaces.

The architecture in this new urbanity can be straightforward and clear. Four floors and a basement hold 18 rooms, outside terraces and a communal laundry room. The yard provides perfect daylight, intimacy and views. It extends the spaciousness of the rooms. Layering spatial qualities, from focused and private at the interior, towards shared and social at the façade, allows students to quickly shift between these modes. A façade of slim sliding doors, shaded by the balcony above, provides daylight and natural ventilation. The balconies double as horizontal circulation, enhancing social exchange. Some balconies have extended platforms in the sky that stretch to the party wall. They are communal spaces; a yard in the sky… and “eyes on the street”

see: www.upto35.com