“Nearly half of GEN Z think of home as a feeling - over three times as many as the 13% who described it as a physical space.”

The "Nova Student Village" emerges from the desire to create a landmark building on the Campus that not only meets the program's requirements but also distinguishes itself within the context of national university residences.

The primary goal of the project is to foster a more open and engaging Campus environment. The integration of the proposal into the existing urban fabric aims to facilitate the opening of the Campus to the outside, which provides a sensory enhancement of the urban atmosphere: visual permeability, interaction with natural elements, and the constructive decompression of the city. The implementation also enhances functional dynamics such as accessibility, comfort, and the diversity of services. By understanding People as the engine of transformative cities, we believe that buildings can help drive the transition from the present to the future.

Sharing is not just a trend. Living in a community has the potential to address some of the greatest problems in our society. Over the past 200 years, we have witnessed the emergence of new forms of cohabitation, from 19th-century boarding houses to the Kibbutz movement and more recently the cooperative movement of the 1960s. Today, a new co-living movement is emerging, with examples of urban co-livings partially driven by rising prices, but also by the notion that a more sociable life will create better and happier communities. As rapidly urbanizing cities struggle to meet contemporary lifestyles, a new sharing movement is emerging that wants to change how we live. Are we going back to living in communities?

“Living together, experiencing things together, sharing things with each other,

is really what creates memories and happiness.”

— Matthias Hollwich

The intervention site is located at the northwest end of the Faculty of Science and Technology (FCT) Campus, in Quinta da Torre, Caparica. In the project, enhancing public space as an extension of the community is a premise. The integration of the building into the urban fabric seeks to establish, from the outset, the continuity of the interior spaces of the Campus with the urban areas of the surroundings and the rest of the city. The proposed project solution seeks to energize the spaces surrounding the building, as well as promote the opening of the Residence to the outside.

The main entrance of the student residence benefits from a generous and wide promenade and stands out from Timor Lorosae Avenue, north of the site. To facilitate visual permeability between the avenue and the interior of the plot, the dividing wall is replaced by a guardrail flanked by ground vegetation. At the lower level of the implementation, near the metro station, a commercial/restaurant space located on the ground floor of the building aims to attract the general public. The corner gains new uses by assuming the function of a "gateway" and promotes permeability to the Campus interior. The pedestrian flow between the lower and higher levels of the site is further facilitated by a staircase and platforms with ground vegetation.