STUDENT STUDIOS THESSALONIKI 2016 -

The brief required the conversion of the eight-storey multiuse building in Thessaloniki into eighty fully furnished student studios with generous communal areas and two shops. The building is considered ideal for the new use, due to its central location and the spatial flexibility its concrete structure offers.

With regards to the relationship of the building to its urban context and in order to respect the continuity of the urban front, the scheme prescribes the replacement of the curtain wall façade with a new skin. The new full height, flush windows and the sliding shutters throughout the day, alter the building’s image projecting aspects of the residents’ everyday-ness.

At the level of the recently re-landscaped low speed street, the generous sash shop windows retrieve 2.20 m from the building line, in order to create an arcade as an extension of the pavement, a comfortable and protected space for outdoor sitting.

The surface of the studios ranges from 22m2 to 32m2, while of the 2 room apartments reaches 50m2. The units are designed as open plan lofts with three particular elements:

- an open, living and sleeping space,

- an external wall with a large full-height window with a sliding-openable shutter,

- an intermediate wet areas’ zone (with bathroom, kitchen and storage).

Six generous communal spaces scattered on different levels enhance -through varied activities- the social interaction between the tenants. Further communal spaces include a bike rack on the ground floor, a multi-purpose room, laundry and storage spaces in the basement.