Co-housing Colonia

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CO-HOUSING COLONIA

Co-housing project for my thesis in Interior Design.

SITUATION

The existing building of former printing office Colonia in Antwerp will be transformed in

a co-housing project which contains minimum 12 units + communal rooms. The building is enclosed by others houses and buildings and has one main entrance on the streetside. Except for a courtyard, it has few space for green or gardens and the building has a very complex construction structure.

DIVERSITY

I put my focus on starters for this project, people that move in for the first time or that are new to the city, because co-housing has both social, financial and ecological benefits.

I wanted to offer different options to this starters, so I created 12 units of which the half are single-person appartments and the other half for two persons, 10 two-storied and 2 one-storied, 8 with a garden and 4 with a terrace. There are 5 communal rooms where the inhabitants can meet or come together: a kitchen, an entertainment room, a laundry room, a working place and a vegetable garden.

UNITS

COMMUNAL ROOMS

Because there are 18 inhabitants and that everyone is different, I created flexibel communal spaces that can be adapted to different situations. Each room has modular elements such as tables, seats, couches... The kitchen for example, has a few fixed elements such as a cooking island and closets but also loose tables and foldable chairs that can be placed or used different ways.