Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The context
The project for a student residence was considered in the context of the urban f
abric of the La Chapelle district in Paris and its role in its evolution. The pl
ot is on the corner of rue Philippe de Girard and rue Pajol in the 18th arrondis
sement, close to the ZAC Pajol, an ambitious redevelopment of former railway yar
ds, on which social, cultural and sports amenities are currently being created.
The district is a very heterogeneous mixture of Haussmannian residential buildin
gs, factories and workshops, and therefore has a richness and wide diversity of
situations unusual within Paris itself.
The street and the courtyard
The project is composed of several buildings, whose volumes and voids depend on
the context. On the street, three six-storey volumes are separated by two rifts
providing access to the residence and vertical circulation. The heights of the b
uildings at the back of the plot vary according to neighbouring buildings. In th
e middle, a spacious courtyard is lit by a rift in the south building, an extens
ion of an existing void. The courtyard, the heart of the project, provides acces
s to the various buildings and defines their interrelationship. A 15 x15 metre s
quare, it ensures sunlight for all the rooms and acts as a kind of green lung.
The circulations
Generally speaking, the empty spaces in the courtyard and circulations could be
said to be junk space in that they are by-products of the design of the buildings.
The project s ambition was to give these spaces so much quality that they create
a genuine plus for residents. The exterior spaces, interacting with the communal s
paces and acting as a buffer between private spaces, are not merely for circulat
ion but provide the conviviality our project seeks to create. As these spaces we
re not part of the project specifications, their uses can be defined and develop
ed by residents.
The materials
The strategy of creating a duality between street and courtyard was pursued in t
he choice of materials. The facades, instead of imposing a single image on the p
roject, participate in creating the varying atmospheres of the spaces they envel
op and delimit. The buildings on the street are clad in dark, slate-coloured bri
ck, while the buildings around the courtyard are clad with larch planking with f
olding louvered shutters in front of the windows and balconies. The facade along
the entry passage is also cladwith larch and announces the feeling of the space
within. All the ground and wall surfaces in the courtyard are clad with the sam
e light-coloured, flexible material, normally used for sports areas and playgrou
nds. The choice of materials was dictated by technical and architectural concern
s. Our research was guided by a desire for durability and the sober, refined and
classical nature of our project.
The specifications
The brief specified the construction of a student residence of around 150 rooms,
communal spaces, administrative premises and a caretaker s apartment, with RIVP a
cting as project manager for the CROUS, which will run the residence. As one ent
ers the residence via the rift on the left, one successively discovers the recep
tion spaces, the administrative premises (on the corner of the street and the pa
ssageway), the communal facilities and the study and leisure areas around the co
urtyard. The 143 rooms have three different typologies. Students have furnished
rooms with an average surface area of 18m2, with a bathroom and a kitchen area.
Here we present 51 Public Social Dwellings in Ali Bei Street, Barcelona, by the
Spanish architect Conxita Blacells. She belongs to the collective Plataforma 8E,
presented in Chile as part of the XVII Architecture Biennial in Santiago.
The city council of Barcelona opted to turn plots determined for public faciliti
es (7) into housing for youth (10hj). We are facing a peculiar and unique fact,
where a housing building for young people becomes an urban facility.
Project Features The building is modeled after other projects in the Eixample, w
here the facility is configured as an exception within the isotropic regularity
of the Cerda plot.
Its uniqueness is shown in the dimension, the topographical variation of the cit
y block and the building density of its surroundings.
Our objectives have been to answer these singularities and at the same time to r
espect the plot.
Adapting the building to its surroundings The main access occurs at the intersec
tion of the two areas, connecting the interior of the city block to the street.
Breaking the continuity of the skin of the perimeter of the block and the layout
of the two areas within the plot allows us to enjoy the best orientations: the
volume with facade to the Ali Bei street is to the south-east, and the volume wi
th facade to the soccer field is to the south-west.
The building incorporates active and passive means of energy consumption, as wel
l as management systems that improve the use and comfort, especially in HVAC, li
ghting and acoustics.
We developed two volumes with a single circulation to achieve maximum cross vent
ilation and sun exposure. The facades are closed towards the north, with the min
imum degree of perforations, in order to ensure ventilation, while in the remain
ing facades, large openings are arranged with lighting and climate control eleme
nts.
The dwelling The building consists of 51 dwellings of 36 square meters for young
people, and it follows the program.
The typical dwelling is defined by two small areas: a day core (kitchen and livi
ng room) and a night core (bedroom and bathroom). On the facade, each area is ex
pressed in an individualized treatment. Each core incorporates facilities from t
he common areas of the building.
We considered it important to define a minimum of essential facilities in the co
nfiguration of the dwelling to endure the durability of the project.