LIVING-HUB / YOUNG G

Affordable housing in big cities has become a major issue to deal with nowadays, especially for people with low income, recently arrived to the city or students. The wider socio-cultural, economic and environmental settings have a great impact on each person and becomes the luggage one carries with himself while being in search for a shelter. Despite different backgrounds, we all do adjust and limit ourselves to a minimum of comfort, as a compromise to the life we hope to develop in a metropolis.

The proposal “Young G” presents the community of young generations who will gather around the concept of sharing common indoor and outdoor spaces, participating actively in taking care of the provided spaces and activating them with both private and public events. The image of the yard is the one where beyond access, music, small gatherings, sports and leisure activities are the soul of the community.

The urban context itself suggests the East-West orientation of the housing units and therefore resembles the present structure of the neighborhood, where volumes, mostly parallel to the Kingsland Road create the front of the street. The solution replicates the concept of “yard”, widely met in London, with the benefit that the two volumes are slightly shifted, allowing the necessary activities - in terms of functionality and aesthetics – to find their space . As a result, the diagonal views to the surroundings offer a permanent contact to the outside world, around the “yard”. Finding itself at crossroads, the site offers the possibility to imagine the “tower” as the exception to the repetitive units that gather around the yard and follow the street. A different type of living finds its place inside the tower.

The architecture of the building integrates itself in the context and is aware of the repetitive small units and of the great volumes around. In terms of sustainability, the house can be built out of insulated bricks, both inside and outside walls and brick ceilings, as seen in the section. A second layer of bricks or prefabricated ocher yellow concrete bring the aesthetics and colors of the neighborhood. Dark red accents in the yard, on the frames and balconies create the vivid atmosphere.

As far as the functionality and access are concerned, there is one address, entering the “yard” on the Enfield Road. The volumes /A/ + /B/ create the yard. People living in the 6-level-tower, as well as the single-units above the 1st floor have a mutual staircase. The same concept applies to the volume B. To the northern area of the site, one can find the access to the underground level, where there are 10 parking lots integrated in a mobility station. Also to the North, there is space for utilities, such as litter, a bike service and bike parking area.

Back to the yard, small units for couples have their entrance from here, both on the ground or the 1st floor. This type of apartments face both East and West. Their sleeping area opens always the opposite of the yard and is protected by a layer of vegetation. Another type of apartments for singles face towards the yard. Their balconies face each other, students can  live in the community and share the outside. The hallway as an outdoor space follows the sides opposite to the yard. One last type of apartments is the one situated always on corners, where couples benefit from great views from the “towers”. The apartments are organised, so that people live in a circular way, inside and outside (loggia).

The reduced variety of apartment show that the multiplicability rate is quite high, while the units serve both to singles or couples. Volume /B/ shows exactly that the proposal works with or without the apartments on the 1st floor, reached by private narrow stairs, with or without the “tower” and independently from the underground floor. There are two staircases in each building – the main one, to be used on daily basis and the second one, in case of emergency, at the end of the corridor.  

Indoor common spaces such as washrooms on each level, a coffee place at the ground floor, facing the crossroads (to be taken care of by the community and used also as private location for events) and a seminar room for learning / meetings bring people together on rainy days. On the other hand, there are generous areas on both the green rooftops, used during the summer.  In total, 108 people will have the chance to be part of the YOUNG G community and make this living-hub a beloved address and a desired place to live in London.