The 19th-century villas in the suburbs of Paris informed the arched home windows and sloping roofs of this social housing block in France, concluded by area studio SOA Architectes.
SOA Architectes was tasked with producing 24 social housing units and two affordable models at Parc Princesse – the site of a former healthcare facility in Vésinet that is getting formulated into housing and an urban park.
The studio drew from the historic villas uncovered close by to develop a structure that would “stand out” although also respecting its parkland setting.
“The city of Vésinet contains various parks dotted with villas, most of them built in the 19th century,” described SOA Architectes.
“The designs are eclectic, easily combining architectural devices borrowed from diverse eras,” it continued.
“The watchword appears to have been expressive richness and the motivation to stand out, [and] this double constraint constitutes a contradictory injunction: blend in and demonstrate you,” it continued.
SOA Architectes divided the apartments across a few volumes. To the west, the two smallest blocks sit at an angle on both side of a central circulation house and bike parking region topped by yard terraces.
To the northeast, the greatest block connects to the central place through a compact url bridge on the 1st flooring, with an angled spiral staircase foremost back again down to ground stage.
A landscaped path gives routes amongst and all over just about every of these blocks and to the adjacent housing developments on the site.
SOA Architectes made a decision to crack up the mass of the creating in an hard work to “not monopolise the park”.
The apartments by themselves are organised as duplexes, allowing for for the development of double-height residing rooms on the floor flooring that neglect the park by way of massive, wood-framed arches.
Balconies minimize out of the corners of just about every block generate coated terraces for the upper levels of the flats.
The Caserne de Reuilly in Paris was “a hollow tooth that we had to fill”
“To vanish at eye degree and mix into the plant masses, the bases of the properties are handled with massive double-height arches,” spelled out SOA Architectes.
“Their proportion displays the size and shape of the gaps left in between the trees.”
Externally, a cladding of concrete panels is enlivened by skinny metallic strips, supposed to help split down the mass of just about every of the condominium blocks by reflecting the trees and sky.
“This hybrid product, both concrete and evanescent, anchors the design as much as it melts it in the kinetic reflection of its reflective strains,” stated the studio
Just about every block is topped by a butterfly roof, a different system to lower the visual dominance of the structures and “enhance the sensation of intimacy”.
Previous jobs by SOA Architectes incorporate the 21-storey combined use Aya Tower in Beirut, for which the studio drew on standard Arabian residences.
Other social housing blocks featured on Dezeen include things like La Brea Cost-effective Housing in West Hollywood and The Caserne de Reuilly in Paris, which have been highlighted as aspect of Dezeen’s Social Housing Revival sequence.
The pictures is by Camille Gharbi.