Gärdet Student Housing

Status: Sketch Project 2012
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Client: Metro XPress/Stockholm municipality

The body is designed for movement, however student life can be very sedentary, due to the variety or lectures, study groups, and seminars. In order for the mind to function optimally, it is vital that the body is also healthy. Research clearly shows that students who exercise regularly perform better.

We aim to develop this relationship further by fusing student housing with sport to create a social learning/living environment. This will make training more accessible to students, contributing to improved health and likely more productive studies.

The new student housing will be a new hub for Gärdets already established activity paths and sports fields, and will add a new variety of indoor and outdoor sports to the area. In this way, exercise becomes a natural part of everyday life of students and a way to make contact with their neighbors.

The house will be an inviting meeting place for both the residents and for those who live and move around the drill field. Our vision is that this meeting between studies and sports become a model for future student housing communities.

Potential clients are more than welcome to contact us for more material on the project: Contact

Living here is like living within a motion. Gärdets existing walkways are updated to 1,2, and 5 km paths. Where the three routes overlap, a twisting knot of circulation serves the assorted student housing clusters.
Terraced rooms attached to flowing hallways weave together and intersect to form sports venues and outdoor communal spaces at each of the different levels.
Gärdet is well used during the warm summer months, but becomes less of destination for activity and excercise during the winter. This new building would help to keep the area vibrant all year by offering indoor sports fields.

In addition to the sports fields, the sloping, twisting running surface is mostly covered and uses the runners’ kinetic energy to power parts of the building’s electrical needs.
Roof gardens, communal kitchens and corridors are oriented to the interior and the various sports centers, focusing the social activity toward the heart of the building.
Student rooms face the green view across the drill field and the trees, creating a calm, private environment conducive to studying.