Ersi Ioannidou (Greece)
Category A Japanese Style
Studio Unit


Big urban conglomerations face a most urgent problem of accommodating single people. There is not only immigration from rural areas, but also a movement from one urban center to another between countries. Cities, like London and Tokyo, face an intense pressure to accommodate all there "immigrants". Most of them inhabit just a room, sharing bath and cooking facilities.
The question is how this minimum dwelling should be structured in order to cover the needs of the inhabitant, both practical and psychological. It is obvious that economical reasons press towards function-defined, standardized, limited space solutions. It seams though that such a space, designed regardless of the future residents causes discomfort. Furthermore, now days space losses its specific functions and boundaries among different spaces are disappearing.

Main issues:
-How to include individuality in design, without excluding standardization.
-How to design minimum but not "limited" space.
-How to design a design a space that is functional but not defined by function.