User:Rinze

Concept

Current trends of the urbanization have large consequences on housing affordability. In Rotterdam, student housing prices have even exceeded Amsterdam [1], making it more difficult for a large group of people to live in the city. The future loss of this creative class (students) can have long-term negative effects on the creative output of a city [2]. This situation creates a need for affordable student housing in the center of Rotterdam, where space is most scarce and prices are currently the highest. This project aims to provide higher density while not limiting the spatial quality of the living spaces.

A study[3] by Stavros Gargaretas shows that the orthogonal spaces we currently inhabit don't match the organic movements of our bodies.

By using double-curved shapes, it becomes possible to save space when apartments are combined:

Besides this, spaces can be designed more detailed according to their actual use than in standard, orthogonal living environments. This provides more spatial quality in the parts of the apartment where it is required:

Macro Scale

On the macro scale, this requires an optimization ('packing') of the different apartment spaces, creating the smallest possible bounding box:

Manufacturing

The manufacturing of the double-curved apartment types relies on prefab robotic fabrication of concrete elements. Just like the spaces itself vary in size according to the local function, the fabricated apartment unit could also have a local adapted skin based on specific functional parameters (physical stress, acoustics, thermal insulation, etc.).