Housing Érard Paris

In order to integrate this new building into its environment, particularly with regards the two low adjoining buildings, we broke down its massing and made it less compact. The 6th and 8th floors step back incrementally from the street-front and west facades to form two upper-level superimposed volumes, benefitting from their west-facing aspect. The five first levels benefit from balconies that cantilever 1 metre out over the street and participate in the overall composition of the volumes, where each section reveals a different type of apartment. The accessible exterior spaces – balconies and terraces – provide both efficient sun-screening and privacy from the neighbours. They reinforce the coherence and identity of the ensemble, while lightening its mass.
We proposed an innovative building system to minimise the use of concrete and thus the resultant environmental disruption from the site. Above all, the practice was adamant that the building should be made as flexible as possible to meet the future, anticipating the obsolescence of the envelope and changes in the building's use. The structure is formed of a reinforced concrete frame with the core providing lateral stability. The facade, in lightweight timber panels, can easily be modified or replaced in the long term.