Spree's Affordable Student Housing

Concept Ideas

As for the building itself, i tried experimenting with different kinds of container arrangements in 3D, and come to a conclusion that stacking them on one another would be the most optimal in providing the most space possible. Now, from the beginning i wanted to make a nice place to hand out with others like I experienced in my abroad semester last year. People were kind of 'forced' to socialize with one another, given they had only two common kitchens each floor, with 22 single rooms, so one kitchen would be used by at least 11 people. While it was nice to cook and eat together, it did feel a little crowded.

Fitting the Rooms

So i replicated that in my project but made it a little less 'extreme'. The common room on the ground floor hosts 6 'kitchen sets' with a fridge and a stove, so with the ultimate number of 18 residents, no more than 3 people would be using one at the same time. I did the same with the washing machines, one per 3 residents. While i wanted to make a gym on the top floor with nice views, i realized there would be too much noise caused by dropping weights, so i ended up placing all the common features on the ground floor. A canoe dock was implemented, so people could join other Berliners on a pleasant voyage across the Spree, and of course, bike racks. The whole structure got connected to the land with the fifteenth container, which would not fit into my composition, as the ground floor hosts 6 of them, and the two other floors each have 4.

First Sample Render

As for the structure, plain containers stacked on one another were just an initial concept, later being held up by a grid of steel beams. The grid itself proved to be unaesthetic and unnecessary, as an interior framing would prove enough structural stability, so it was scrapped. The structure itself would be insulated by spray-foam, as it would fill the container's every corner. As for the material, I chose a special composite of glass fiber and resin, as it proved to be corrosion-resistant and up to 4 times lighter than steel. This material is used all around the project, as the stairs, structural framing and finishing, as it can be of any color and any pattern.

Advanced mode with exterior piping. The pontoon has been shrunk to minimum and later surrounded by a layer or barrels.

The pontoon will later be made of EPS blocks, as only barrels would not be enough to carry all the weight of the containers. Although, one layer of barrels would then be attached by chains to grand the illusion of it 'swimming on barrels'. The HVAC and water systems would have their respective pumps located in the northern part of the ground floor common-containers, with exterior access. As the heating pump's exterior unit needed to be outside, small perforations have been implicated in the yellow container to allow free air flow. Those installations would later on be lead by exterior pipes, as putting them inside the structure would prove a little problematic, and in addition it adds to the industrial aesthetic of the project. The pipes would later on become insulated, with colors representing their function: red for heating, blue for cold water, grey and black for gray / black water. A container for wastewater was placed inside of the EPS pontoon, and was connected to the city system beneath the 'bridge container' 

As time goes, the structure would be easily renewable, one container reaching its exploitation date would just be prefabricated anew and replaced, or easily deconstructed. The whole building itself can also be multiplied, providing more shelter for students. Also, it is not limited to only one city.