The large post-war social housing complex Cité du Grand Parc was planned to be demolished as morally obsolete, but in 2007 it turned out to be part of the Port of the Moon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In order to preserve the ensemble and improve the quality of life there, the city authorities adopted a district renovation program. And for the renovation of the first three buildings - gloomy 11-16-storey buildings with a total of 530 apartments, they chose a project by Lacaton & Vassal, which offered significant improvements with minimal intervention. Recall that these architects in 2011 attracted everyone's attention with their reconstruction of the residential tower "Tour Bois Le Pretre" in Paris. In Bordeaux, they followed a similar pattern, but on a much larger scale.
At the Cité du Grand Parc, the main innovation is the winter gardens and balconies for each apartment. To isolate them from the structures of buildings, the multi-tiered "stacks", assembled by a crane from the modules-terraces, were placed on their own V-shaped supports close to the southern facades of latitudinal buildings H and I; House G, where the apartments are one-sided, is complemented by terraces on both sides. The depth of the outbuildings was 3.8 meters, and the additional area for each apartment was 25-30 m2. As a result, it was possible to improve lighting, functional flexibility of the apartments and provide panoramic views.
The terraces are accessible from all adjoining rooms. Small window openings in the old outer walls are cut to the floor and closed with sliding doors with double-glazed windows, and in place of the loggias, glazing was made to the entire wall. On the terraces themselves, sliding polycarbonate screens have been mounted, separating the winter gardens from the balconies with glass railing. The doors from the rooms were supplemented with curtains to help keep warm, and the screens of the gardens - with shading. The renovation made it possible to improve the natural thermoregulation of the apartments, increase the thermal insulation up to modern requirements.
Also, within the framework of the project, bathrooms and electrical wiring were repaired in each apartment. Elevators were replaced in all sections, and one new shaft had to be added on the outside: thanks to the polycarbonate cladding, these shafts became expressive vertical accents against a white background. The entrance lobbies on the first floors have got transparent walls, the landscaping of the adjacent territory has been updated.
The total area of the additions (budget 27.2 million euros), including 8 new apartments (additional 1.2 million), amounted to 23,500 m2: more than half of the original building area. The reconstruction lasted for several years, but the residents remained in their apartments all the time, and special attention was paid to the information support of the project and the participation of residents in it. In addition to organizing meetings, printed materials and a website, a “pilot” terrace was built before the start of work to demonstrate and test the principle of reconstruction.
