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Strategy: the right scale
The urban planning specifications encourage the use of variations in volume and height as tools to master both solar light and heat and direct views. This formal richness also has the potential to enable the definition and differentiation of public spaces.
.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg "75 Apartment complex, Colombes by LAN Architecture")
The major problem of plot B1 lay in its aspect, and the volumetric proposition in the specifications which, whilst ensuring compactness (advantageous from a thermal point of view), imposed limitations in the design of most of the apartments above the third floor. So we sought other volumetric solutions that could both extend the compositional logic of the volumes of the surrounding buildings, and at the same time optimise layout of the apartments and improve the visual conditions of each block.
The choice of typology
Creating a convivial setting that federates the town's different districts and acts as a kind of bridge between the apartment block typology and the small private house, was one of the major keys to this project's success. Ideally, we had to be able to respond to universal housing needs, and propose different types of units in order to favour and create mixity and generational confrontation. From the plan to the facade, our proposition is a superimposition of different typologies, diverse in the size of the spaces, the relationship between the apartment and its exterior and the way in which each room is lived in. The volumes we arrived at are very flexible. This diversity reflects our modern, democratic society, but also represents an interesting commercial posture in that stimulates curiosity between neighbours and therefore avoids depersonalisation. In construction terms, the words diversity, variety and morphology are often equated with increased construction costs. There is some truth in this, and when one explores this path one has to be extremely vigilant. We put all our experience in housing into this proposition, initially seeking a construction system that could absorb the project's concept. This led us to the choice of concrete, the rationalised superimposition of loggias, and the choice of a single material: wood.
Whereas the conceptual process we applied to Plot B1 revolved around the creation of a world with a communal hub, Plot B2 stands alone, at the intersection of several roads and public spaces. It therefore has to play the roles of fulcrum and signal, whose conception clearly demarcates a living space whose typology is less that of an apartment building, and closer to that of a public amenity, of a building serving the town as a whole. The task wasn't simple but we tried to respond through the notion of loss of scale. An apartment building is often characterised by its windows, the rhythm of its façade and the notion of domesticity extremely present in its language. We based our proposition on a very simple idea: creating a dual language with the use of a double skin. The main facade plays a dual thermal and acoustic insulation role. It has a perforated oxidised copper outer structure, which plays an aesthetic role but also ensures privacy vis-à-vis the exterior, guarantees control of solar light and heat and enables exterior access to the main facade on each level. Residents can use the sliding panels to modulate light, shade and heat. By adjusting this second, sliding skin, one can create intimacy or on the contrary, open completely, or combinations of both. These uses enable the south facade to constantly change with the weather and seasons.
.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg "75 Apartment complex, Colombes by LAN Architecture")
Colombes
Project: LAN Architecture (lead architect), DAL BETC (structure), S2T Fluides Thermiques (surveyor + HEQ consultant), AVLS (acoustics)
Project manager: VINCI Immobilier
Location: Eco Quarter Zac de la Marine, plot B1-B2
Budget: 7M € excl. VAT
Project area: 5410 m²
Realisation: 2011-2013
