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Architects: Babin+Renaud Architects

Design Team: Jean-Francois Renaud and Eric Babin

Client: Mrs Schwoerer

Contractor: SICRA

Engineering Consultancy: EVP Ingenierie

Photographer: Cecile Septet

 

Profoundly mixed, this vast operation combines briefs for proximity, public housing and private

apartments but also several demolitions and reconstructions. The latter had an impact on the agencys

project brief, for the inhabitants of one demolished high-rise by the peÅLripheÅLrique were rehoused here,

whereas the community center and the library are reconstructions.

The building contains 84 accommodations and four public facilities: a day nursery, a library, a community

center and a social center.

The main issue was to speak to the city in an environment highly influenced by its proximity to the

peÅLripheÅLrique, source of sound and chemical pollution.

The architects decided to combine a sequence of quality entrances for the inhabitants while maintaining

full opening to the facilities along the avenue. Organizing into blocks thus made it possible to differentiate

each facility by alternating empty spaces directly above which entrances to the accommodations were

placed and recessed from the street.

The building is composed of four blocks and three empty spaces through which extensive exterior spaces

were developed. Walk-through terraces, protected from the noise of the peÅLripheÅLrique by glass partitions,

have been located both on the ground level and in the upper floors. This singular location is underlined by

its slender volume, which highlights the corner and gives an urban character to a building that is

nonetheless very contemporary. The project meets the strict environmental requirements as seen by its

being awarded various certifications, i.e. Habitat & Environnement A-profile, Low-energy consumption

building and Plan Climat de Paris. This pioneering building in this neighborhood promises to become one

of the areas most important landmarks while offering its residents comfort of use removed from the

environmental drawbacks that continue to exist.