Project: The Village
Date: 2024
Location: N/A
Scale: Medium

The Village is based on the Polish village typology okolnica, where private houses are arranged around a shared public space. The project aims to foster community through a clear gradient of privacy. It consists of five concrete cuboids within a rectangular footprint, each housing an apartment for a different demographic. The cuboids are oriented toward one another to encourage interaction, with shared facilities forming central gathering spaces enclosed by a timber canopy and large glass openings.

Visual connections between apartments and communal areas are created through an interior layout that places small, functional pochés along the outer edges, allowing a large, flexible shared space to open toward the center. Balconies are positioned beneath and pierced through the timber canopy to maintain both functionality and visual connection. The rectangular footprint can be subdivided into smaller rectangles with varying privacy levels, which is essential to the project’s organization.

Each household has a clearly defined private territory suited to its occupants, balanced with shared spaces at the heart of the complex. Drawing on the concept of an intimacy gradient, the design emphasizes the need for private rooms alongside communal areas. As a result, the collective spaces—the negative of the concrete cuboids—are designed in parallel with the dwellings rather than as leftover space. An irregular grid governs the distribution and hierarchy of public, semi-private, and private areas to achieve balance across the village.