Ker Tilia - social housing
These two collective housings in Saint-Nazaire, dressed with wooden and steel cladding offer to their inhabitants a pleasant living environment. Just like an individual house, the project creates individualized accesses and generous exterior spaces.
The Ker Tilia project arises from the will to requalify an abandoned space on the limit of the large ensemble of "Kerlédé", vast building complex opening towards the estuary of the Loire. The site also borders a district of popular suburban housing.
Both the collective housing buildings of the project are inserted in the urban network of the city and the suburban district. Each one of them is implanted nearby a big existing tree – a lime tree and a poplar – creating close links between the housing and the vegetal environment.
The design of the external spaces of the ground floor defines exterior spaces that are inhabited and circulated around the trees, giving access to the housing, the parking lots, the carports, the gardens, the terraces and the courts.
The former slabs of tar of the ground were reused and piled up to create low walls, and the wood of an existing cedar that was torn down was used to make the fences of the gardens. Landscaping also consists of edible plantations, common kitchen gardens, and “rainy gardens”, showcasing the collection of the rainwaters.
These two similar volumes of collective housing embody the revisited figure of "the building villa". They distinguish themselves by the individualization of the accesses to the flats by small passageways. They also provide, for every accommodation, an additional living space in the form of a winter garden, acting as an entrance and as an extension of the living room. This configuration helps to remote every apartment by its immediate neighbor. Nevertheless, the ample common spaces preserve the collective character of the buildings. The “intermediate”
