Student Housing Brindisi – Sociality as design strategy

This student housing concept was developed for a competition for the city of Brindisi, focused on rethinking how young people live and learn in shared environments.

Our approach starts with a simple question: what does it mean to live together today?

Rather than designing a building with isolated units and standard corridors, we imagined a system of relationships – spatial, social, and environmental. The architecture encourages informal connection: shared functional spaces at the junction of paths, study rooms that open onto gardens, and modular rooms that adapt over time. Each element supports interaction without forcing it: we distributed opportunities for exchange across the whole complex, giving students the freedom to find their own rhythm.

The circulation system is deliberately porous. Interior and exterior blend through each other. These are not leftover spaces – they’re part of the daily experience. The material palette is tactile but durable: exposed concrete, wood, light and green becoming architectural materials. Simple, readable, warm.

We approached sociality not as a theme but as an infrastructure. A way of thinking about how people actually inhabit space – how they cross paths, retreat, share meals, stay up late talking.

This isn’t about staging community. It’s about making it possible.