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71 council and private flats in Sète
71 council and private flats in Sète
Sète, France
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Other Projects by Colboc Franzen et Associés
71 council and private flats in Sète
Sète, France
The building plot lies on the thin strip of land between the Étang de Thau and the Mediterranean Sea on the northern side of the old town, close to the commercial port and its huge industrial facilities. As the last available parcel in a housing development project that began in the early 1990s, this plot is the first stage in an ambitious urban project that aims to convert huge swathes of abandoned docklands into a business and residential district. The project therefore sought to link these different scales of space and time together. How should we evoke the site’s past and at the same time, through architecture, forge a modern identity for this entrance point to the town of Sète and its emerging neighbourhoods? How should we respond to the titanic scale of the port, with the sea as the horizon, while also maintaining the old town’s way of living?The plot of land is itself in a state of transition. The urban planners responsible for the new neighbourhood foresee that in future it will be bordered by three streets to form a complete block. Currently, it stands at the corner of two roads and next to a privately run aerial car park. Urban bye-laws make it impossible to align the new project with top of the car park and thereby set it against the blind party wall of the neighbouring housing development. So how can we tie the building’s development into the (far longer) development of the town? By splitting the building up.The morphology of the operation: housing blocks rising from a base of shops and car parksThe project design is based on three blocks of flats set on a ground-floor base. The development comprises four distinct parts: 16 council flats in various configurations; 55 private two- and three-room flats; and shops and car parks to service all of the above. The base accommodates the shops and the car parks, whereas the blocks house the flats. The base interacts with passers-by, whereas the blocks enter into a dialogue with the particular landscape of the commercial port as well as benefiting from the open views it provides. Last but not least, the base materialises the plot by establishing a clear separation between public and private space at ground-floor level, while the tower blocks are entirely given over to the latter. The six-floor block of council flats provides a transition from the existing buildings around it and is therefore located at the centre of the project. This is more than just a gesture of urban courtesy to the neighbouring housing development; it is a way of establishing ‘social bonds’ by accommodating rather than assimilating. The other two eight-floor blocks are thus free to demonstrate their autonomy. The block standing on the street corner marks the entrance to the old town while also looking out towards the commercial port facilities and future developments on the empty docklands. The block at the back is situated above parking spaces and gardens. It looks like a sculpted object in the middle of the ‘island’ and we therefore forget that regulations made it impossible to set the building against the existing party wall.Embedding through useThese blocks also embody a principle of ‘Mediterranean architecture’ that allows for a lifestyle adapted to the local climate: outdoor living protected from intense heat. The arrangement of the blocks makes it possible to offer dual-aspect flats with particularly attractive corner living rooms. There are balconies running along the façade and these outdoor extensions allow occupants to walk around the outside of their flats. The corner of the living room is truncated, making the balcony wide enough for a table and chairs. A galvanised steel screen protects it during very hot weather and also provides a nice amount of privacy. It follows the curve created by the varying widths of the balconies. It lends harmony to the three blocks and makes them easier to interpret. They become gigantic steel cocoons whose materials remind us of the maritime world, while their shape is reminiscent of a ship’s stem and the wind in the screen slats sounds like the jangling of masts in a port.Metal screens: the architecture of shade and privacyThe galvanised steel screens spin a delicate architecture of shade and privacy that controls the sunlight by letting the oblique winter rays in while blocking the high-angle rays of summer. They also allow occupants to make appropriate their balconies without disturbing their neighbours, and to create a ‘homely’ feel while also enjoying the view and life in the town centre.Flexible flatsEnabling occupants to appropriate their flats also means offering them spaces that evolve with their needs. Hence there are no technical constrictions on the façade and as the building’s weight-bearing core contains the shared amenities, most of the ducts are placed close to this core. The walls between the flats are also weight-bearing to ensure optimum sound-proofing. Ultimately, making sure that the project is flexible enough to adapt to future changes is a means of ensuring that the building lasts.Car parksOne of the major issues for a society that cares about ‘sustainable development’ is the space given over to cars. Yet the site’s proximity to the Étang de Thau and the Mediterranean Sea means that local regulations forbid putting the 92 parking spaces these same regulations demand underground. The project must nevertheless find a solution to the societal conundrum that obliges architects to build parking spaces for cars despite the enduring energy crisis (at least on the current scale) while current concerns prevent them from putting them below ground level. Making good use of the various slopes, the car park creates a man-made topography in the centre of the block of land and harbours a landscape of gardens and parking spaces. These consist of light-coloured concrete surfaces that are deactivated or swept according to whether they are for driving on or for parking. The effect is like shelly limestone and it is punctuated with beds of broken rocks and characteristic regional plants. The ground is protected by a layer of bushes and small trees, which provide shade as well as establishing the requisite distance between the flats and people using the car parks.Innovative construction and implementation techniquesEach building’s apparent structural complexity is outsmarted by optimising their geometry. Thus the curve of the metal screen, which changes as it adjusts to a variety of geometrical shapes, can be broken down into six distinct scenarios. This work is considerably simplified and speeded up by 3D computer modelling combined with the digital cutting technology developed by the metalwork company responsible for manufacturing the screen. The same method has been adopted for more traditional elements. There are only three different types of window, and the frames are the same, since the balconies all have a similar curve to them.
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