Located in Limassol, Cyprus the new University of Technology student housing building proposal explored the relationship between students and their campus while focusing on the user’s experience and its various levels of activities. The new housing building is meant to serve not only the student’s basic needs (eat, rest, study) but also its social and cultural necessities (meet, network, exercise, hang out), through which, a true student life experience is created.
While 4 different volumes of housing form around the site, a central plaza on the first floor becomes the heart of the development, ties the buildings together and creates a hub for public life. On the ground floor, a path, allowing access to the site, is slowly elevated to become the linking device to all programmatic spaces (indoor and outdoor) between ground and first floor. The 4 building volumes are placed in a strategic way to embrace pedestrian traffic and to create a beautiful courtyard offering privacy to student apartments. In the same way that the landscape architecture responds to the campus needs, the façade does, to its climatic conditions and the building’s programmatic needs.
The design proposed exposes an extrovert character through public walkways, common spaces and social life, embracing people to use all aspects of the site’s development. At the same time, an introvert characteristic appears through the creation of the courtyard and designated entrances to each building supporting the student’s safety within the campus organization.