Project Description
We know that in most of our interior spaces, the inside air is 5 times more polluted than outside and that 80% of us lacks from the necessary 100 000 lux a day, regulators of circadian clock and happiness. Largely open, the buildings act as living machines visible as exemplary landmarks in the city . They show everything buildings usually hide to raise awareness at a larger scale. They use natural ressources provided by the sky and the ground, permitting to live in between them. The technical aspects of the buildings such as water and air pipes, solar panels, solar protections become their aesthetic. An esthetic of functionality, sustainability, reversibility and liberty. The towers allow to reach the sky, to live in the sky. With 360° views, it’s possible to live entirely outside : all glass walls can be opened. Opening the boundaries of light, they permit to live outside, with wind, sun, elements and seasons which we know are fundamental for human happiness and rhythm. It’s like living in a garden. The project consists on the construction of two residential towers and the rehabilitation of a Lacaton Vassal social dwelling block in Paris. NOT TEARING DOWN OLD BUILDINGS BUT RAISING TO THE SKY Almost nothing is modified in the existing building following one rule : destroying less, building more. Very little changes are made to allow every room to have natural light, cross ventilation and an exterior sunroom. Interior divisions are rethought to allow evolutivity : some rooms can be reassigned to other apartments or become independent studios following inhabitants needs. Open to the light, awnings of different colors give their identity to each part of the complex. THE WHOLE IS AUTONOMOUS THUS COMPLEMENTARY The one with dark blue solar protections, is occupied by students and elderly people. They share common spaces and facilities to improve intergenerational living : they have complementary necessities and similar life-styles, living alone. Each existing student studio have been divided in two linear studios and extended by semi-outdoor bathroom, balcony and kitchen. Those three spaces can join to form a big outdoor terrace, half of the studio surface. They are made of a metal structure sustaining translucide glass tiles floors and walls. In summer, the whole studio can be exterior. The new doors allow direct sunlight to reach the inner corridors. An other part, the bright blue one, is occupied by transit rooms and studios for interns, modern nomads or workers with shared bathrooms, kitchens and living-rooms in different typologies. Last part is divided between offices and flexible apartments. This extension has been made closer to the sky with pink awnings. All of the parts share common facilities : bicycle parking, laundry rooms, roof terrasses, guest bedrooms, … AN EXEMPLARY LANDMARK IN THE CITY TO LIVE CONSCIOUSLY The new towers have been located according to sun orientation. Air flows in between their slabs to cool them in summer while isolating them in winter, caught thanks to the possibility of losing the interstice. They are only made of free plan floors totally appropriable. All stairs and lifts are the same than the existing building to get rid of them in the towers. Inside, no partition walls. Each inhabitant can live as he wants, dividing space with anti-waves curtains, building its own partitions… NATURAL LIGHT AND AIR FOR ZERO CONSUMPTION All the parts of this whole are crossed with three types of pipes. They allow versatility of the spaces at the same time rising inhabitants awareness. Here, inhabitants are as the crew of the buildings. Everything the building produces is visible in a closed loop of recycling thanks to a high lowtech. The red ones are connected to wind chimneys that work without electricity to continually renovates inside air. The blue one is connected to huge water reservoirs on rooftops : the collected rain water is filter through ponds in the garden and stocked in reservoirs, installed in the former car parking. All the water consumed comes from there and is then reused filtered again in the ponds. The yellow ones are connected to the garden. They lead urine to reservoirs to be used as fertiliser for farming gardens of all the neighborhood. RESSOURCES ARE IN THE SKY AND IN THE GROUND The buildings make the best of their location : situated between l’Ourcq canal and petite ceinture park around Paris, they benefit from those fresh points in the city and interact with them. In Paris intramuros, scientists observe a temperature rise of 0.5°/year. The building opens on the ground floors to form a big entry to the park connecting it with the canal docks : the garden became public. In addition to shops and cafés, it offers to the city a canoe parking to be able to use the canal as a mode of transportation.