Living like in a village community

The Student Village Adlershof opened ten years ago

Wood-clad façades with an accordion look, colourful blinds, and floor-to-ceiling windows: Construction on the Student Village Adlershof was completed ten years ago. Since then, 400 students from all over the world have been living and learning here. A sense of togetherness created on about 100 square metres of communal area per housing unit. Since it was opened in 2014, the places in the student residence have been highly sought after.

“In my first semester, during the pandemic, I was still living with my parents,” says Lucas Kunath, who studies mathematics. “The lectures were given via Zoom. And so, we had three people sitting in front of the screen together and had lots of fun.” The cheerful co-students sat in the Student Village Adlershof and were zooming from their kitchen-cum-living room. When Kunath saw this, his decision was already made. A few months later he moved into a room in a shared apartment with ten other people—and is still happy that he took this step.

The student moved into one of eight three-storey passive buildings. On every storey, there are large, shared apartments with up to thirteen rooms. “Every room has an alcove with a desk built into it,” says Jens-Uwe Köhler, managing director of Studentendorf Adlershof GmbH.

“Not every room is the same: Some have large windows, some have two slightly smaller ones, and the alcoves all have different shapes. This creates a movement in the façade that I find fantastic.” In two other buildings, there are flats for researchers and smaller apartments, a daycare centre, and a fitness area that can be used by all students.

Moving into the village was a huge change for Kunath, who grew up as an only child. Suddenly, he was meeting students from all over the world—and there was always something going in his flat. “Every morning when I wake up, I meet new people that someone has brought along.” He is currently living in with students from England, Egypt, the Czech Republic, and Romania. “I have learned a lot about other cultures, and I also learned how to cook and speak English fluently. I also improved my French.”

In the kitchen-cum-living room, the students play board games and have parties. “If the party goes until seven in the morning, it’s not really a problem. Everything’s super soundproof.” To study, the mathematics students go to the library, which is just a few minutes’ walk away. When all the formulas have been internalised, he and his roommates use the many local leisure activities—the uni cinema, for example, organised by the physics department or the village bar, which is run by former students. “The Student Village is a living organism, which is why so many people enjoy living here. We live like in a village community.”

“If you live in a community—and that’s the most important thing—you are not left to your own devices,” says Köhler. “People come together, there are negotiation processes, it’s about issues of tolerance. It’s democracy in action.” The managing director of Studentendorf Adlershof GmbH would like to give even more students the chance to experience this. For lack of space, he and his colleagues had to reject thousands of applications last winter semester. “I would like to build additional stories and we have other young living project in the pipeline.” But before this goes any further a big party will be held to commemorate the Student Village’s ten-year anniversary on 22 June.

Nora Lessing for Adlershof Journal

Studentendorf Adlershof