Concrete loggias overlook a courtyard at this social housing block in Paris, which French studios Francois Brugel Architectes Associes, H2o Architectes and Antoine Regnault Structure transformed from workplaces.
Known as Ilot Saint-Germain, the house is situated in two interconnected blocks previously owned by the Ministry of the Armed Forces within the metropolis's seventh arrondissement.
To the south, an 18th-century stone bearing constructing faces the street, whereas to the north, an L-shaped, concrete-framed constructing from the 1970s embraces an interior courtyard.
Francois Brugel Architectes Associes, H2o Architectes and Antoine Regnault Structure had been commissioned to rework these former workspaces into 254 social properties, whereas including a health club and kindergarten for residents and the broader metropolis.
Searching for to focus on and complement the qualities of the prevailing buildings, the studios retained and restored their buildings, drawing on their palette of pale stone and concrete for the gymnasium and kindergarten.
“The vital factor was to work with the prevailing options, utilizing the qualities of the unique buildings and making them seen,” Jean-Jacques Hubert of H2o Architectes instructed Dezeen.
“There’s a actual curiosity in excited about the alternative ways during which these buildings, by design, belong to the town,” added François Brugel, founding father of François Brugel Architectes Associés.
An open courtyard within the middle of Ilot Saint-Germain now additionally homes the gymnasium, which has a sunken concrete type with a wood-lined inside lit by casement home windows.
On the alternative aspect of the central housing block, the kindergarten is contained in a quantity of matching pale concrete, completed with slim vertical openings.
Each concrete volumes are lined by backyard areas designed by panorama structure studio Élise & Martin Hennebicque, with ramps and steps offering entry to the roof of the gymnasium.
Ilot Saint-Germain flats are organized to attenuate inside corridors and their interiors are saved minimal and versatile to permit residents to adapt them to their wants.
Overlooking the courtyard, the 18th-century block opens with giant, arched home windows, whereas the 1970s block has been lined internally with loggias, giving every condo sheltered out of doors area.
“Every constructing gives particular facilities [that] ends in all kinds of typologies,” mentioned Hubert.
“Every consumer wants to search out their place within the on a regular basis lifetime of the house, backyard and services,” he added.
The usage of pale concrete at Ilot Saint-Germain was guided by the stone and concrete finishes of the prevailing buildings, which had been complemented by darkish wooden window frames and pale metallic balustrades.
Lately in Dezeen's Social Housing Revival sequence was one other refurbishment of a former army web site in Paris, The Caserne de Reuilly, which noticed h2o architects, alongside six European companies, adapt a former barracks into practically 600 properties.
Photograph by Jared Chulski.