Thermopyles

Rue des Thermopyles, Paris, France

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Thermopyles

Rue des Thermopyles, Paris, France

Firm

SOA architectes

Type

Residential › Multi Unit Housing

YEAR

2012

SIZE

100,000 sqft - 300,000 sqft

The site of the transition house and social
housing units on rue des Thermopyles encapsulates the district’s overall
qualities and problems. The plot provides a transition between two scales and
two construction histories in the locality.
To the north, rue de Plaisance, a typically outer
Paris street lined with medium-size, four and five-storey buildings and other
higher buildings in grey and red brick, sets the general architectural tone and
amplitude. To the south, rue Boyer-Barret, with its Haussmannian façades,
defines the visual limits of the surrounding urban landscape.
Rue des Thermopyles runs between these two
parallel streets. Its workshops, vegetation and courtyards are on the pleasant
small scale often typical of Paris’s peripheral districts.
These two urban fabrics are interspersed with a
succession of green plots between the squares on rue Didot and the public
garden on rue des Thermopyles.
The project is a response to this eclectic mixture
of scales and typologies and the need to fully integrate it into local life.The wood-clad transition house, aligned against the wall of the
neighbouring building, exploits the plot’s depth and ensures full contact with
life on rue des Thermopyles.
On the rue de Plaisance side, the five-floor
white building with a stepped-back top storey adapts to the overall scale and
volumes of the surrounding architecture on the street. Although it is perfectly
aligned on rue de Plaisance, the programme’s large apartments tended to thicken
this volume on all floors. It was this constraint that was the key to defining
the project. In total continuity with the neighbouring gables, the creation of
facets on the south façade ensures the building’s integration into the urban
fabric and excellent sunlight exposure. The white mineral building is
the project’s urban façade, while the wooden building belongs to the
greener environment in the garden of the transition house and in the public
garden on rue des Thermopyles.The façade materials were chosen in function of
two different urban environments.
The first, associated with the street, is more mineral and inert. The
upper volumes are clad with a chequerboard of smooth and studded Corian
panels. The variations in the openings and the Corian panels adapt the facade
to the varying scales on the street. The thermo-moulded relief on the façade
catches the light, creates a dynamic and casts shadows that vary with the
light. The whiteness and purity of the Corian contrasts with the texture of the
galvanised steel window frames. The window frames of the mineral volume are in
steel.

In contrast, the building inside the plot is
organically clad with a chequerboard layout of retified poplar planks and
spaced timbers harmonizing with the plot’s vegetation. The wood and aluminium
window frames are also in galvanised steel.
These two materials also create a continuity with
the district’s traditional Parisian buildings, which have brick street facades
and rendered walls on the courtyard or garden side. The white exterior on the
street and wooden interior of the plot visually express the project’s total
integration into its context and the district’s history, whilst using materials
still unusual in Paris.
The façade materials were chosen in function of
two different urban environments.
The first, associated with the street, is more mineral and inert. The
upper volumes are clad with a chequerboard of smooth and studded Corian
panels. The variations in the openings and the Corian panels adapt the facade
to the varying scales on the street. The thermo-moulded relief on the façade
catches the light, creates a dynamic and casts shadows that vary with the
light. The whiteness and purity of the Corian contrasts with the texture of the
galvanised steel window frames. The window frames of the mineral volume are in
steel.

In contrast, the building inside the plot is
organically clad with a chequerboard layout of retified poplar planks and
spaced timbers harmonizing with the plot’s vegetation. The wood and aluminium
window frames are also in galvanised steel.
These two materials also create a continuity with
the district’s traditional Parisian buildings, which have brick street facades
and rendered walls on the courtyard or garden side. The white exterior on the
street and wooden interior of the plot visually express the project’s total
integration into its context and the district’s history, whilst using materials
still unusual in Paris.
The façade materials were chosen in function of
two different urban environments.
The first, associated with the street, is more mineral and inert. The
upper volumes are clad with a chequerboard of smooth and studded Corian
panels. The variations in the openings and the Corian panels adapt the facade
to the varying scales on the street. The thermo-moulded relief on the façade
catches the light, creates a dynamic and casts shadows that vary with the
light. The whiteness and purity of the Corian contrasts with the texture of the
galvanised steel window frames. The window frames of the mineral volume are in
steel.

In contrast, the building inside the plot is
organically clad with a chequerboard layout of retified poplar planks and
spaced timbers harmonizing with the plot’s vegetation. The wood and aluminium
window frames are also in galvanised steel.
These two materials also create a continuity with
the district’s traditional Parisian buildings, which have brick street facades
and rendered walls on the courtyard or garden side. The white exterior on the
street and wooden interior of the plot visually express the project’s total
integration into its context and the district’s history, whilst using materials
still unusual in Paris.