12 Social Housings in Quais Blanqui
This 12 social housing project is located in Alfortville in the South-East of Paris next to Seine river. The neighborhood around presents an heterogeneous architecture, between collective housing units and small individual houses. The challenge is to find the good scale among this diversity.
The position of the new building follows the idea of a compromise between the different typologies. Each apartment has a clear individual access from the high garden. Aligned along the streets Parmentier and Blanqui, it asserts a certain urbanity on these avenues, in contrast to the green heart of the project which is open to the neighborhood. The corner shape of thr building makes it possible to find the best exposures for the twelve apartments of different sizes. Each of the emergences is arranged in order to obtain views and ensure maximum sunshine.
The project is placed above a basement containing common areas of use and car parks. Above it are three volumes containing the twelve dwellings, around a courtyard with a garden. These outdoor spaces are located on the first level, above the car parks. The dwellings are spread over three floors.
The garden is rather modest in size, but it is a major part of this project. It is perceived from all the dwellings, and brings a breath in the neighborhood. The building surrounds it like a jewel case while preserving visual escapes. Trees with high stem, wisteria and virgin vines, have been planted to compensate for the lack of greenery of the district. This place is designed as a shared space that all residents can appropriate. All the accommodations benefit from several orientations and at least a balcony, a private terrace planted on the ground floor.
The building finds its expression in the duality between urban and landscape sequence. This is reflected architecturally by the implementation of two principles of facade. On the rue Parmentier and the Quai Blanqui, the project expresses the urbanity by a mineral material, a clear and smooth concrete with wide openings. In the heart of the block and on the Rue de l'Avenir, the facades have a more organic and moving appearance, due to the use of the treated wood, but also to the window shutters which take up the vertical pattern of the paneling and, once closed, give the illusion of a totally uniform facade.
This project seeks the right scale between compactness and openings by offering perspectives on the close landscape and the distant landscape of the river.
