Nova Student Village

The existing condition reads as closed and largely internal. The proposal responds by reinforcing pedestrian continuity and visual openness between Timor Lorosae Avenue and the campus interior, and by placing public-facing uses at ground level to support a more active relationship with the neighbourhood. In this sense, student housing is treated less as an isolated object and more as part of the campus’s everyday infrastructure, where study, routine, and public life overlap.

The project also frames shared living within a longer lineage of collective dwelling. Over the past two centuries, new forms of cohabitation have repeatedly emerged, from 19th-century boarding houses to the kibbutz movement and the cooperative experiments of the 1960s. Contemporary co-living models have returned under different pressures and expectations, often tied to the premise that a more sociable life can support stronger communities.

In architectural terms, the proposal focuses on what can be shaped directly. It supports communal life through clear circulation, robust common spaces, and thresholds that allow residents to engage at different intensities, from solitude to shared routines, without prescribing behaviour.

The main entrance is set along a generous promenade, giving the residence a civic address from Timor Lorosae Avenue. Along the plot line, the dividing wall is replaced by a guardrail with low planting, maintaining a boundary while improving sightlines and the pedestrian experience. At the lower level, near the metro station, a commercial or restaurant space at ground floor is intended to attract both campus users and the wider public. The corner takes on a gateway role, and movement between the lower and higher levels is supported by stairs and planted platforms that also create small places to pause.