Location: Sweetwater, United States.
Architect: Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos.
The student housing project in Sweetwater County, Florida was designed to promote local art through architecture and increase social interaction within the building. The heart of the project is a large community space that serves as an extension of the public space and welcomes users with an extensive natural ambiance. The open central atrium enables bioclimatic solutions such as natural illumination and cross-ventilation, and creates new dynamics between users, the surroundings, and the city. The interaction between ideas, discourses, and the generation of a sense of community takes place here, activating the social life of the students thanks to the range of open spaces. The program layout follows the same dynamism in circulations and open spaces, which serves to distinguish the complex from others like it. The principal façades of the building are employed as canvases to become the focal points for exhibiting work by local artists, thereby promoting community values and artistic recognition. The interior design also provides spaces to allow the imagination to flow in response to the works of art.