It is a widely accepted fact that gentrification can revitalise derelict urban neighbourhoods. To make it part of the city however, needs a solid mix of people from different social backgrounds and cultures. The Dammstrasse housing project provides a home for people who lost relation to their social surrounding a long time ago and who are not used to live in stable social environments. To design a project that welcomes everybody and supports the creation of a new community is quite an architectural challenge. A careful mixture of different housing typologies as well as the creation of collective and social spaces is the core to this project. Housing units for singles, couples, families and shared accommodation are strongly related to private and collective outdoor spaces, spaces for encounter or to grow your own vegetable. Adaptive spaces provide the transition from pubic to private areas, from outside to inside the apartments and add an extra value to the social coherence of the project.
