The project located to the east of the urban restructuring of the “Arras-Europe” in Lille, benefits from a special status at the entrance to the site. Indeed, the block makes the link between the existing fabric made up of houses; of a set of collective housing preserved and rehabilitated, and new operations.
The entire program is organized in 2 buildings comprising respectively 10 and 16 apartments. The first floors of the two buildings accommodate the most important typologies, and are addressed directly on the streets bordering the project, giving them the character of townhouses. These dwellings are developed in duplex with a double height and openings in a high position offering the necessary privacy.
All accommodation is exclusively through, each having a quality outdoor space in the garden or loggia. The two upper levels install a rational superposition of typologies and are served by passageways.
The circulation in the form of exterior passageways allows transparency of the vertical circulations and views of the heart of the block while extending access to the housing from the outside. The sloping roofs allow the living rooms on the top floors to benefit from high ceilings and generous openings. The inversion of the slopes cuts the sky at the same rhythm as the houses of the street. The architectural style of the two buildings articulates durable and expressive materials, and plays on the contrast between the fine molding of the brick and the interior raw concrete. The brick materiality of the facade dialogues with the traditional houses of the north and its frame takes up the vertical rhythm of their succession.