4 Collective Housing Units, rendering courtesy of LAN Architecture

LAN Architecture has won the competition for new residential area - 4 Collective Housing Units located in Bègles, France. The design for the ecological and social living space appears both modern and sculptural, it creates the diversity of architectural propositions in the urban context.

+ Project description courtesy of LAN Architecture

A new, ecological and social living space geared to the 21st century.

The project’s richness and major interest lie in the possibility of inventing an urban lifestyle set in a highly experimental framework enabling the affirmation of new ecological and contemporary architectures. The diversity of architectural propositions and communal and private spaces had to ensure and enhance this specificity.

4 Collective Housing Units, rendering courtesy of LAN Architecture

The first stage was to ‘sculpt’ the volumes in order to exploit their urban potential and intrinsic spatial qualities. We directed our research towards a hybrid typology combining the house and the apartment.

The principle underlying our approach was that of stacking containers, and careful study of habitat modes, climatic conditions and the sun’s trajectory throughout the year suggested the way to organise this.

The project’s column-slab supporting structure has a system of lightweight façades providing ultra-high performance insulation levels.

4 Collective Housing Units, rendering courtesy of LAN Architecture

The relative narrowness of the buildings dictated a strategic search for compactness. The idea of variable compactness introduced the notion of a housing unit’s adaptability to seasons and times of day. All residents have the possibility of using their exterior space as a windbreak, a mini-greenhouse or, conversely, as a means of cooling or ventilating.

The morphology of each unit stems from the wish to develop housing units enabling a variety of uses very simply and with no extra technological input. We are therefore proposing cross-building units with adaptable exterior spaces and at least two different orientations.

+ Project credits / data

PROJECT: 4 Collective Housing Units
PROGRAM: Construction of a complex of apartments, shops and business premises.
LOCATION: Quartier Terres Neuves, Bègles (33)
COST: 6.5 M € HT
BUILT UP AREA: 6,500 m2
COMPETITION: 2009
COMPLETION: 2012

TEAM:
Lead architect: LAN Architecture
HEQ consultant: Agence Franck Boutté
Structure: Batiserf Ingénierie
Quantity surveyor: Michel Forgue
Fluids: LBE

CLIENT: Ataraxia, Saemcib
3D IMAGES: Rsi-studio.com

+ All images and drawings courtesy of LAN architecture

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