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French social housing offers exceptional design
Renowned for their elegance and style, Parisians, it would seem, can’t help but extend this quality into every element of their city, illustrated with this exceptional model for social housing à la rue picpus. Local architecture firm Emmanuel Combarel Dominique Marrec architectes have designed this 63 unit social housing block to integrate into the exquisite existing Hausmannian architecture, maintaining the original stone façade to one elevation, and allowing it to stretch around the corner and offer a pleasing contrast to the modern glass frontage of the new block.
Inside, projected angular walls create a variation in the compact apartments’ shapes thus creating individual living spaces. Large windows ensure plenty of natural light enters the apartments while hallways are architecturally lit.
Two colours are used throughout. Green is used for the public frontage and pink for the shared internal courtyard. Varied shades of green are used in the exterior glazing creating a kaleidoscopic effect.
From the internal courtyard you can see that inhabitants are offered private outdoor space in the form of balconies and terraces overlooking the open public space and ensuring that residents can enjoy a piece of the continental lifestyle so intrinsic within Parisian culture.
Niki May Young
News Editor
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