26 Social Housing

Project Details

Project Description

FROM THE ARCHITECTS:

Situated to the west of Chalon-sur-Saône centre, the Bellvue district consists of a variety of building typologies typical to that of a city’s suburbs. Apartment blocks, detached houses, town houses and rows of low rise social housing, form the urban fabric of the existing site

Situated on an enclosed site and set back from the main street, this project for 26 social dwellings responses to its surrounding environment and to the design brief that imposed a timber construction solution.

A set of fragmented intermediate housing (20 dwellings) and a row of terraced houses (6 dwellings) are arranged around a central planted alley leaving space for vegetation and outdoor spaces.

The plot has a rectangular form and measures approximately 38m x 47m, narrowing as it meets the street and entrance. This constraining geometry is further encumbered by the presence of an existing passageway, house and garages, offering little foundations for the future project.

The design competition launched by OPAC Saône & Loire initially envisaged the construction of two distinct buildings of 3 to 4 floors, 20 collective dwellings and 6 intermediate dwellings. We quickly realized that this typology was inappropriate and would not allow to sufficiently structure or make the most of the site. Our proposal places as much emphasis on voids as on solids and offers intermediate and individual housing rather than intermediate and collective housing.

The project is thus built around alternating free functional spaces and built volumes depending on the qualities and constraints of the site. From the street entrance to the northern site limit, entrance, outdoor parking, intermediate housing, alley, gardens and individual houses, creates an urban sequence that works in harmony with the scale of the neighboring buildings.

The fragmented volumes of the intermediate housing create a filter between the parking and the central alley.

The voids help create a sequence of different experiences as you move through the site. This ‘mise en scene’ is prolonged through the use of footbridges and external staircases offering distant views and remarkable frames towards the city.

Reciprocally, the project reduces the visual impact of the imposing surrounding housing blocks as seen from the Bellevue Estate.

The orientation of the intermediate housing creates a dialogue between the street in front and the row of individual housing behind. The interior layout allows for a diversity of dwelling typologies with some living spaces orientated South East and others orientated North West, each have unobstructed views towards the exterior.

The built volumes are clad in vertical wooden slats that rhythm the facade. This play of vibration extends along the terraces through separation screens in openwork wooden battens ensuring solar and visual protection to each dwelling.

The quality of the outdoor spaces is an essential component of the project, a space for socializing, they leave a large place to the vegetation. Trees and shrubs with evergreen foliage will quickly grow and colonize these spaces. Several varieties of birch trees, selected for their narrow growth and vertical development, will introduce a slender silhouette creating a dialogue with the projects built volumes.

A paved central alley allows access to the row of houses located on the north-western limit of the site. Each house has its own a private garden. A purple haze hedge has been planted along the garden boundaries to preserve their privacy. The living rooms are south facing and open out onto the garden, a wooden lattice awning protects the façade from solar gain. To the back of the houses, the alternating volumes of kitchen and patio ensure the articulation with the site limit and the existing urban fabric.

Particular attention has been paid to the fifth façade. The tiled roofs of the houses offer an individual scale and create a colorful landscape to overlooking housing. Contrasting voluntarily with the monotone facades of the surrounding dwellings, the roof tile layout recalls the diamond pattern, characteristic to the roofs of historic buildings in Burgundy. This design gives a specific identity to the project that is appreciated by the inhabitants.

The project creates and promotes the idea of an individuality to each inhabitants living environment. Due to the projects configuration and composition between the solid and void, each of the dwellings are double oriented, bathrooms and kitchens have been placed along the façade and benefit from direct natural light and ventilation.

The entrance to each dwelling is placed centrally in order to optimize space and allowing a maximum of space for the living areas. The kitchen and living rooms are extended by generous external spaces, gardens, patios or balconies according to each typology.

The private part of the habitat is not posed in opposition but in articulation with all other spaces. Those spaces, common areas, paths, external staircases, will allow a wide variety of uses, practices and social interactions.