Frankie&Johnny Dormitories

The differently colored groups of shipping containers shifted slightly towards the outside and inside or turned 90 degrees create a playful architecture that at the same time is metaphoric for the lively and vibrant new form of cooperative living they create. Through the compact construction and thoughtful placement of the buildings give rise to spacious external areas for urban gardening. The High Cube Container 40 feet , measuring 12.19 m x 2.90 m, is a prefabricated container developed as a residential module of lightweight assembly kitchen, bathroom, sleeping and storage elements. The interior is constructionally separate from the exterior skin and therefore both thermally and acoustically independent. The use of lightweight drywall systems ensures a reduction in weight of the converted container.

The closed end of the standardised container is substituted with glazing. The result is thus a front entrance facing the walk way. The construction system also allows for the possibility to couple two containers together, shared living for two people, or three containers for collective living. The proposed composition is envisaged with mostly single units, subsidised by some double and triple units. The compact building divides the site into two open spaces of different character designed in collaboration with Hager Partner AG, Berlin. In addition to activity and sports areas there is a green oasis of spacious lawn and trees. The café on the ground floor forms the heart and central meeting point of the complex. The area between the two buildings Frankie and Johnny is at the heart of the project. It is here where the students meet, on the way to and from their unit of residence, take a rest on the wooden seating and entertain on the generous galleries which are themselves designed to develop as green walls both for a pleasant climate and as visual and sound barriers.

The name Frankie & Johnny stands for the residents & students from all parts of the globe & who will live together in this one-of-a-kind location in Berlin. Sustainability is the fundamental idea behind Frankie and Johnny . It presents a reuse of shipping containers, with recycled wood and furniture pieces in the conversion. A heat recovery system provides resource-saving heat and electricity supply. Through the compact construction and thoughtful placement of the buildings give rise to spacious external areas for urban gardening. Size of the building 12187m2