DesignBuyBuild_16_2015
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Social Housing in Aigues-Mortes<br />
Thomas Landemaine Architectes<br />
Photographs: MC Lucat<br />
The project of collective<br />
housing in Aigues-Mortes<br />
has been developed within an<br />
exceptional site, living witness of the<br />
70s. The building is located in a factory<br />
estate whose architecture is marked<br />
by a modern style. The plot occupies<br />
a key spot; the work has to manage<br />
the transition from a scale to another,<br />
between 3-storey housings and individual<br />
houses the latter being scattered at the<br />
rear of the plot, on the property line.<br />
In order to compose with existing pieces,<br />
the TLA team has chosen to integrate<br />
and reinterpret some of the on-site<br />
architectural elements to the building<br />
aesthetic.<br />
As a result, the treatment of edging<br />
strips has been carefully thought and<br />
comes marking the floors to give a local<br />
dimension to the project. Although it is<br />
integrated in its context, it was important<br />
to give it a punch image, an identity.<br />
Consequently, architects chose to use<br />
wooden materials to unify the project.<br />
First, this material covers well and<br />
second it creates small subspaces, more<br />
secret universes. Being like little huts,<br />
the loggias create intimate outdoor<br />
spaces where it is pleasant to live.<br />
The wood emphasizes a feeling of<br />
warmth and of interiority but mostly<br />
permits one to manage opacities and<br />
transparences, and acts as a filter. Thus,<br />
“looking without being seen” becomes<br />
possible!<br />
Finally, marking the corners appeared as<br />
a way to reinforce the project geometry<br />
and to delimit distinctly two entities.<br />
The upper part, with fifteen apartments<br />
in double exposure, is covered of wood<br />
and punctuated of small appropriable<br />
volumes. The composition is sitting<br />
on a mineral base. Here, the addition<br />
of gabion baskets comes to strengthen<br />
the dichotomy feeling between the two<br />
elements. On the ground floor two public<br />
spaces nestle: a tax center and a police<br />
station.<br />
The main difficulty on this project were<br />
to conciliate cost, comfort, aesthetic,<br />
social and environmental issues. But this<br />
skin has not yet said its last word! Then,<br />
it takes a functional role and becomes<br />
a sunscreen. Playing with rhythms and<br />
exposures, it protects and receives light!<br />
Faithful to itself, this skin shapes and<br />
modulates the facade.<br />
www.landemaine.com<br />
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