Paris, like no other European city, has been striving to provide affordable housing for all segments of the population - for many years now. Since 2012, there has been an unprecedented rental subsidy program in certain districts, and new housing developments are often a “mix” of conventional and social apartments. Affordable housing is emerging in various districts of Paris to ensure the social “heterogeneity” of residents and in no case to prevent the creation of a “ghetto” for the rich.
A new social housing complex designed by the French bureau TVK was built this year in the heart of the 15th arrondissement on the site of a factory previously owned by France Télécom. It includes three main blocks that combine surprisingly "multidirectional" programs. On 11,000 m2 of the total area there are 54 social apartments, a temporary shelter for 25 residential units, a nursing home, a day center for the homeless and a nursery. These features are complemented by commercial spaces open to the use of all citizens.
The first of the three blocks leads to the corner of two streets - Lurmel and L'Eglise - and marks the beginning of the complex, inviting you to look further. In this block, the lower level is given over to shops, and above there are 30 apartments. Its architectural solution is more "urban" than the other two parts. Monochrome facades and a small cantilever extension of the upper floors bring it in line with the existing scale of the street.
The main action takes place in the heart of the quarter and therefore is hidden from prying eyes. There, on both sides of the inner square, there are two main buildings, complementing and balancing each other. In the west there is a nursing home, a day center for the homeless and a nursery, in the east - residential blocks and a shelter for women victims of domestic violence. The difficult task of creating an environment, the users of which are very different in age, lifestyle and needs, is being solved by the ideas of creating a holistic artificial landscape. This is how small internal gardens, niche landscaping, large open terraces appear, where all residents of the complex can find a place to their liking. The interior space was not designed by TVK, but it harmoniously blended into their project.
To ensure the comfort of such different inhabitants, the architects paid great attention to the delimitation of space and the development of a typology of apartments. The floor plans are practically not repeated, the residential modules are supplemented with various common halls and passages, the apartments, consisting of 3 or more rooms, have loggias. The lower floors are reserved for those who need it most: in the northern part of the complex there is a shelter, separated from the general area by its own garden, the other part is reserved for a nursery and a nursing home, and the remaining areas are given to receptions, offices and common rooms.
The architects paid great attention to climatic solutions. So, in the first block, large windows appeared to match the illumination indicators indicated in the general urban climate plan of Paris. The choice of materials is dictated not only by aesthetic qualities, but also by their high energy efficiency. The use of wood for facade cladding creates a warm atmosphere not only in a figurative sense. The wood was then supplemented with aluminum and enamel glass, taking into account their reflective coefficients to provide the necessary level of illumination to the opposite buildings and the surrounding buildings. The result is a smart, light and light balanced solution for a comfortable living environment.
