MySpace student’s housing

Trondheim / Norway / 2012

8
8 Love 5,833 Visits Published
‘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: three stages of the space of interaction Today, beyond form, location or urban rhetoric, public space is the space of interaction. Three case studies, named Pocketworlds, Chatrooms and Social Catalyst, related to the exploration of the new collective, were the guidelines for our proposal: Pocketworlds: MySpace unifies situations of extreme intimacy with those of extroversion and collaboration. A room is a powerful mechanism that allows the expansion of the identity, self-recognition and reaffirmation, interchange and negotiation. One’s own space is a laboratory where to test abilities that later will be experienced in every act of social interaction. The best room is the one that stages a small world of our own in its interior: small is fundamental in domestic space; small is empathy in action and a means for playfulness. Chatrooms: Chats are effective public spaces in the context of global societies, whose community-building depends growingly on the search of common affinities. These ‘places’ where avatars meet wearing alternative identities are kind of accelerators of the self. Social Catalyst: In order to achieve a collective-driven atmosphere, students share a flexible lounge and a self-managed, ‘ultrakitchen’, designed as an experimental space for the use and simultaneous enjoyment of 116 students , like a 24/24 sort of social sustainability condenser. This way of structuring common space trough collective actions as a means to strengthen the bonds within the newly established community impell dwellers to come up with rules, responsibilities and unexpected ways of counterbalancing interests. Building 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. 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. Esp El Edificio Myspace propone la concentración, transferencia y acondicionamiento de las posibilidades de relación del espacio urbano. El cliente (una asociación llamada SIT que provee alojamiento y otros servicios a estudiantes) solicitó un incremento de un 40% en el número de camas inicialmente programado sin alterar el volumen proyectado, y reduciendo además el ya de por sí ajustado presupuesto originalmente fijado para la obra. El edificio se estructura según una serie de bandas paralelas a la calle principal. El núcleo central del edificio contiene un gran espacio multiuso, desjerarquizado y sin una definición espacial clara, donde diferentes ambientes y atmósferas se entremezclan. Plantas de habitaciones abrazan este espacio, y reproducen la ordenación general, organizándose en bandas funcionales (almacenaje, cama y baño prefabricado). Asumiendo las condiciones urbanas existentes, el edificio se independiza en la medida de lo posible de los edificios colindantes, y perfila su volumen para maximizar el potencial de las vistas y el soleamiento. Terrazas cubiertas y descubiertas se reparten en diferentes orientaciones, y a través de ellas los estudiantes buscan la relación con el exterior, la ciudad o las vistas más lejanas Como respuesta a la iniciativa municipal de promover Trondheim como ‘ciudad de la madera’, Myspace sirvió como base para el desarrollo de soluciones innovadoras en el empleo de madera en edificios públicos. De este modo, tanto la estructura de fachada como el recubrimiento exterior del edificio se realizaron en madera de abeto, combinando diferentes composiciones, tratamientos y texturas. La entrada en vigor de una directiva que cambia la consideración de Elgesetergate (pasando de ser una calle a ser una carretera) repercutió directamente en la configuración e imagen del edificio, pues impedía abrir ventanas de dormitorios en ese frente. De este modo, las fachadas frontal y trasera se conciben como espesas membranas que albergan las habitaciones (y se abren hacia sendos espacios ajardinados), mientras que los corredores y espacios comunes miran hacia las calles que lo flanquean. A medida que diversas características del edificio se fueron hacienda públicas a partir del inicio de la construcción, se originó un encendido debate en las redes sociales entre los candidatos a alojarse en ella. La arquitectura tiene aún un amplio territorio por explorar en la búsqueda de medios que permitan por un lado recoger datos y reacciones y ofrecer una respuesta ágil (casi en tiempo real), tal como sucede con los arquitectos de la información o los programadores de videojuegos.
8 users love this project
Comments
    comment
    user
    Enlarge image

    ‘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: three stages of the space of interaction Today, beyond form, location or urban rhetoric, public space is the space of interaction. Three case studies, named Pocketworlds, Chatrooms and Social Catalyst, related to the...

    Project details
    • Year 2012
    • Status Completed works
    • Type Student Halls of residence
    Archilovers On Instagram
    Lovers 8 users