Located at the intersection of the homogeneous and
haussmannian landscape along Gossec Street, and of the disparate
architecture made up through time on Picpus Street, the site on which
this 63 social housing program is established is an element of a
typical “collage-city” landscape, also characterized by a double
movement of the natural soil: the connection, on its front part, to the
deep slope of the Picpus Street, and, on its backyard limit, to a
landmark garden, 1.50 m higher than the average level of the soil.The project is a proposition to link these opposite typologies and soil movements.Two
parallelipedic buildings, respectively 7 and 6 levels high aligned in
parallel on the front and back limit (north and south) of the plot are
set up on stilts above two long ribbons which concentrate all the
accommodations of the residence on the street side and keep clear a
wide open space way far unto the landmark garden. In the courtyard, the
rooftops of the ribbons, “vegetalized”, expand to propose "house-typed"
apartments with high ceilings, equipped for the handicapped. On
Picpus street, West side, the project is connected to the truncated bow
of the haussmannian building at the angle of Gossec Street, as if the
site was a corner lot. It prolongs the fixture and the components of
the architecture of the Gossec Street, proposing a sharp collage. East
side, the project is aligned with the roof of the smooth facade of a
building from the 70’s, also continuing the fixture and the components
of the adjacent building, marked by a withdrawal that completes the
project.Elevated on 2 parking
levels, the ground floor slab appears like a mineral kaleidoscope,
appropriate to dissolve the handicapped requirements in an
opportunistic and playful mid-mineral mid-vegetal landscape. Each
apartment or accommodation has its specific altimetry, in the exact
prolongation of the kaleidoscope, generating a free movement of the
doors and windows, emphasized by their reflection in the stainless
cladding of the ribbons and the ceilings.One
enters the residence through a metallic curtain by a wide porch in the
axis of the project, and then each building has its own entrance hall.
The project presents 2 colors, 4 specific facades conceived to respond
to very specific solicitations, all characterized by wide windows,
opened on large terraces or balconies (depending on their orientation),
protected by colored glass treated like sunglasses.