Gonatas+Lantavos Architects designed the Social Housing Project for the competition sponsored by the Greek Social Housing Organisation and the Hellenic Institute of Architecture. Located in Axios, a municipality 27 km from the center of Thessalonica in Northern Greece, the residential complex is composed of small buildings that make up the larger complex. The existing landscape and context of the site helped formulate the design approach as an electronic microcircuit of connections.
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The small buildings are clustered around the site to create a wall of protection, thereby creating an internal courtyard which operates as a communal space for the residents of the complex. This allows public life to evolve in the outdoor “room.” The space is organized by vegetation that offers a breakdown of the large space and allows for different events to occur simultaneously such as a meeting place and playground. Between each building there are green pathways that provide a connection between each of the components of the complex, as well as to the external roads.
The internal paths, greenways and locations of the buildings reinforce the microcircuit in which many components operate together to build upon a system. The distribution of apartments among the many buildings allows a wide range of views available to residents enhancing the importance of the human scale among the structures.
The morphology of the building consists of apartments varying between two or three bedrooms, a living room and dining space, a kitchen and a bathroom. The organization of the apartments allows for direct access to the central staircase between the front of the building and internal communal space, connecting residents to the facilities at the basement level. The complex also utilizes ecological principles such as photovoltaic panels, green roofs, natural ventilation and rain water collection.
Architects: Gonatas+Lantavos Architect Location: Axios, Thessalonica, Greece Project Title: Social Housing: Residential Microchip Project team: Dionysis Gonatas, Vangelis Lantavos, Maria Lantavos, Katerina Tsakrikadaki, Pantelis Bakirtzis Site area: 6512, 88 sqm Building area: 3256, 29 sqm Design year: 2010
