Inspired by its location in the green suburban west of Paris, the house is conceptually based on natural tree systems.
The house was planned, similar to the concentric rings of a tree, around a central vertical circulation core that climbs over five floors from basement to terrace. From this core, the major programmatic spaces of the house become the consequent ring, followed by the outer layers; that of the facade with its facetted outer skin or bark.
Image Courtesy @ Jakob+MacFarlane – Roland Halbe photographer
Among the buildings composing macro-lot B4, B4A takes on an iconic image, the star shape of which owes everything to its location.
Standing at the tip of an acute angle at the intersection of rue Marcel Bontemps and Cours Emile Zola, its volumes focus all of its 95 accommodations around 3 vertical openings. To develop maximum linearity of the façade, the building is hollowed out and turns its façades to the best exposures. This striving for light engenders sculptural shapes where the recessed façade and alignment with the street express a continual organic movement.The wide balconies that ring the building on every floor underscore each floor with a line, like so many piled up layers. These platters rise in stacks to compose a graphic system of undulating lines that amplify its volumes. On a scale with Cours Emile Zola, it looks like an event in the city, also reflecting quality use of the outside spaces for each apartment. The building’s exterior skin is composed of fine float-finished plaster. In contrast the façades of the access balconies are clad in wooden panels, thus putting an accent on the domestic nature of their use.
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