The former industrial area tackled by the project has a great potential for development and it is gradually transforming into a residential neighbourhood. The residential development is also bringing along new jobs and recreational areas.

The site allotted for residential buildings used to have industrial and administrative functions. We are supporting these functions in part by keeping the existing office building and filling the ground floors of the buildings with offices and services for the local residents.

It was a difficult task for us to find a housing typology, which would work in the shadow cast by a neighbouring high-rise, and, at the same time, create a space to cater for the residents’ emerging communities and to articulate the boundaries between the public and the private spaces.

Our solution is to group individual urban villas together to create semi-open courtyards facing different parts of the plot: cours d’honneur. The groups are stapled with bridge-balconies, which introduce a new typology of summer spaces, similar to large terraces of private houses.

We have shaped the built environment, anticipating possible future development of this area, in which we see Khlibna St evolving into the main street with Sichynskoho St and Pymonenka St becoming its side streets. Therefore, the project also includes a small linear park, which in the future will fence off the residential space from the noisy motorway and the buildings of the former factory. This park also creates a new public space in the area, lacking such spaces.

Cours d’honneur allow us to diversify the space and integrate it into the urban environment. In this way, we maintain the connection with the streets and, at the same time, create spaces inside the block. This concept also ensures development efficiency balanced with cosiness inside the courtyard. Cours d’honneur both create additional functions and make the residents’ journey to and from home pleasant. We give the residents an opportunity to communicate with each other and to cultivate a sense of belonging to the community, while keeping their privacy and respect for personal space.

The typology ensures that all the sides and façades of the building are open and overlook different parts of the plot. This creates the maximum number of corner apartments with open views, natural cross-ventilation and broad functionality. For instance, there are four corner apartments in a section of six apartments, while in another section all the apartments are corner ones.

All spaces have clearly articulated privacy without any suggestion of enclosure. The residential buildings, connected with gallery balconies, are partially adjacent.

The buildings themselves have 6, 9 and 12 storeys. The accent building has 12 storeys, which is the highest point on the site that closes the block.

The space adjacent to each villa provides a passage between the houses and creates an impression that the space is constantly changing, so the residents will not get bored by it.