7 Houses

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7 Houses

Firm

Bigoni Mortemard

SIZE

100,000 sqft - 300,000 sqft

BUDGET

$1M - 5M

Situated
less than 2
kilometres from Paris, set
back from a heavily travelled five-lane road, the building complex is located
at the end of a cul-de-sac. The surroundings, composed of small
buildings, houses and workshops, are more evocative of village calm than the
agitation of the neighbouring suburbs.

The
architects have had to cope with contradictory objectives with, on one hand the
specific character of the housing called for by its situation and, on the other
hand, the considerable density of population made necessary by the ecological
requirements of the local economy. A great supporter of architecture, the
developer largely defended their choices despite the fact that the financial
conundrum seemed rather to dictate the construction of a block of flats (an
apartment building).

The overall building plan appears simple: two parallel
bars of different widths on either side of a central alleyway garden six metres
wide. Like part of a medina, the external form of the plots does not
allow us to decipher the layout of the building. To ensure the privacy of
each unit, the houses are juxtaposed, not atop one another and not
overlapping. Laid out in the form of a cross, the main section 12 metres
wide consists of four adjoining houses. Simpler in form and only 9 metres
in width, the second building is made up of three houses in a row, each lying
between the courtyard and a private garden. The organisation of the
volumes, the open spaces and the indentations ensure long diagonal views
between residents in contrast with the frontal relationships that one might
have feared in such situations.

The houses
are developed vertically (3 and 4 bedroom units) with bedrooms on the ground
floor, for the first four of them, raised above the passage and with terraces
opening out onto the central alleyway. The double-height living spaces
are on the first floor directly in relation to a series of terraces ending in a
habitable roof-top, largely open to the surrounding environment and where
worktops with sinks have been installed for use.

Out of view
under the buildings, the basement houses car parking and the cellars, leaving a
plain earthed area which could be made into gardens for three of the houses.

Though the facades do not have many windows this is due to the fact that
the light comes principally from above. Invisible from the bottom or from
straight opposite, huge light boxes illuminate the double-height of the
first-floor living spaces from directly above, without taking away from their
desired intimacy. The contrast between interior and exterior is striking.
Just as in a medina, the austerity of the exteriors does not give a hint of the
generosity of the natural The
skilful quality of the smooth extra-white wall surfaces reinforces the overall
Mediterranean atmosphere.

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7 Houses

7 Houses

Product Spec Sheet

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Team