Block of 24 Flats + 7 Shops
Part of the Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon town centre urban renewal, the project develops 24 flats and 7 business premises on rue Henri Messager. The development site is located in vicinity to a conserved 1900 style building. The Telhuet stream flows to the south of this new complex. Currently underground, it will be uncovered to flow freely in the future Telhuet urban park. Overlooking this new green space, the operation will have an exceptional role in the renewed Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon town centre - on one side an urban facade while the other, the landscape.The project is developed as a block of flats on 3 levels over a ground floor that accommodates various types of businesses. The architecture is contemporary and sober that uses the vocabulary of the traditional Normandy house; corbels, vertical setbacks, pitched roofs. Four storeys high, the housing units are designed at a neighbourhood scale with simple and refined volumes of comfortable proportions. The lightness of the composition relates to the new landscape planned in the renovated neighbourhood. Simple and durable materials are used; zinc, smooth render and stained concrete. Like the facade of the conserved building, the dark stained concrete is the base of the whole operation that provides continuity along the street. On the upper floors, the volumes that accommodate the housing units are clad in anthracite zinc on the gables and light-coloured render on the street and park facades. The white render and grey zinc create a contrast that plays in harmony with the ground floor.
To punctuate the facades and play with light and shade, the zinc cladding has standing joints. Designed in the style of the adjoining Normandy houses, each building is composed of a series of large vertical terrace houses with recesses (corbels), large passageways and balconies. All housing units have double orientation. Declining in shades from English green to a coppery green, the coloured guard rails give emphasis to each level.
