TEPAK Student Halls

This is the winning entry of an open competition concerning the design of student residences, along with the required supporting facilities. Comprised of 485 student rooms with 78 kitchens between them and a series of further common facilities beneath them the project is located in the Verengaria area of Limassol.  Being the first urban intervention in the area it provides an initial momentum and the establishment of a dialogue with what is and what might be. Links and a spatial vocabulary are primary factors at the urban scale. The first gesture of the design folds up the landscape, forming an elevated plateau which is deliberately of a reduced impact to the surrounding terrain. It’s hollowed out interior is still grand enough to provide an entire series of public facilities. This acts as a catalyst which evokes an entity and identity, upon which the actual physical requirements of the student halls are located. These elevated volumes float above the sweeping statement, enabling a continuous flow below, further enhanced through the reflective surfaces the structure is enveloped in. The animated landscape which might be seen as the third element in the conversation occurs not only as green and growth but also as void and even pockets which invite inhabitation. The fluidity of these encourages a visual and experiential merging of internal and external space and event. The built environment itself offers further gathering opportunities at a smaller scale, with features such as the external staircase creating small balconies immediately outside the communal kitchens. This lines up with the environmental approach where rooms are all facing south, while circulation and other facilities are kept to the north, with planting and screens helping to protect accordingly. The various functions of the building are treated as a single entity within which the individual demands are retained but the legibility of a wider context are never quite lost.