Sumit Singhal Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.
69 Housing units, 1 gymnasium in Paris, France by AAVP – Atelier D’architecture Vincent Parreira
July 12th, 2016 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Metropolis Communication
Taking into account the context of a blend of populations, memories of bygone activities and the many built styles and uses expressed in the surrounding built environment, this operation includes a gymnasium, atop which 69 social housing units have been built. Its first aim is to hybridize the industrial scale with the more intimate one of the individual housing unit.
Most housing units are resting atop the gymnasium structure, a series of porticoes extending more than 20 m in length whose beams form the load-bearing wall of the first level of each housing unit, and determine the framework for the loadbearing walls on the floors above. A vertical fracture separates the first gymnasium/housing complex from a smaller lot, which is comprised of housing o the upper floors as well as a series of service areas on the ground floor: guardian’s reception area, diverse storage areas, access to the garage, etc. Each housing unit is equipped with its own loggia, whose variable depth is calculated to allow sufficient privacy for the occupant. On the ground floor, metal netting filters light so it does not interfere with the practice of sports inside, reducing the exposure of users to the gaze of passersby.
Loggias, passageways, footbridges, staircases, and garden buffer spaces: The operation takes privacy into account while still increasing visual transparency and porosity, even if going against the contemporary mania that says the purpose of a building is to totally isolate everyone from views of each other. The descent into the half-buried rooms is magnified by a staircase creating transparencies in all four cardinal directions. The occupants of the terrace houses become a show that unfolds as for inhabitants as they walk alongside the building. They are literally thrown into a complex world whose rear courtyards and tiny little courtyards rustle with sound of diverse destinies.
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