Home > Magazine > Issues > #34 July/Aug 2010 > Social housing, Paris

Social housing, Paris

Social housing

PARIS (FR) - Atelier du Pont's discreet social housing project is characterized by its thermal performance and natural elegance.

This small social housing building, which has the look of a large artist's studio, is the first project to be developed under the Paris 'Climate Plan'. It clearly sets out to charm visitors to this quiet side street, while simultaneously demonstrating how thermal efficiency can be achieved in an elegant setting. The building, which stands in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, close to the Père Lachaise cemetery, entirely fills its small, 250 m² plot. It has a floor area of 658 m² and contains eight apartments, two on each level.

Philippe Croisier, one of the architects who designed the project (along with Anne-Cécile Comar and Stéphane Pertisier from the Atelier du Pont, which is in turn a member of the PLAN01 collective), describes its style as subtle charm. 'We treated this building as a small treasure, with the cornice line mirroring that of the local artists' studios, with glass cladding on the street frontage and wood on the garden side at the rear.' The facade creates a link between the two adjacent buildings, which represent the old and the contemporary.

The entire project, which is highly compact, is insulated on the outside. The energy performance of the collective gas heating system, with its condensing boiler and use of renewable energies by means of photovoltaic roof panels, made it possible to fulfil the requirements of the city's 'Climate Plan' (annual consumption below 50 kWh/m²). The use of a single material across the entire facade is in keeping with sustainable development and keeps the building compact. The use of glass on the facade and the design as a whole maximize natural light in both the private and shared areas of the dwellings. 'This environmental strategy has fuelled the architectural debate focusing on ease of use, construction methods and durable materials. Clients, architects, design offices and companies are now all working together to make a complex range of decisions,' Croisier concludes.

Initiated in 2004 under the auspices of the THPE label (Very High Energy Performance), the project was adjusted to meet the requirements of the Climate Plan while still in the design stage. The architects had to review the thermal performance of the envelope and improve its renewable energy production. With a concrete block structure insulated on the outside by a layer of rock wool covered with anodized aluminium and textured glass panels, the facade wraps all the apartments in its glass envelope, which resembles the atrium windows seen on studios. From the simple printed glass cladding on the facade, through the textured glass in the fixed windows on the first floor landing, to the clear glass on the windows in the living quarters and shared areas, the cladding varies according to how the different areas are used.

To the rear of the building, the straight lines of the pine cladding complement the landscape of the garden in the adjacent co-owned property. While the thermal insulation also reduces noise and avoids the effect of a noisy courtyard, the wood, which has been treated at very high temperatures in order to extract water, is completely maintenance-free.

The apartments have private gardens at ground floor level and wide terraces on the top floor. While optimum use is made of natural light in all the dwellings (main rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, entrance halls, etc.) and in the shared areas (landings, stairways, bike sheds, boiler room), the best orientations were allocated to the living spaces. The client, which revitalizes run-down housing by enhancing existing structures, is very proud of this, its first new-build project. The first lucky residents are expected to move into the apartments this summer, and can look forward to a 20% reduction in their energy bills.