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Architects: AQMA
- Area: 1000 m²
- Year: 2023
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Photographs:Jean Baptiste Thiriet
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Manufacturers: KEIM
Text description provided by the architects. The Scala project is located on the edge of the ZAC Presqu’ile in Grenoble. The plot enjoys a very favorable setting, surrounded by mountains and future buildings. At the corner of Rue de Nantes and Winston Churchill, the plot forms a south-facing "point," which gives it a distinctive character to be highlighted. The challenge of the project was to take advantage of this exceptional situation by relying on urban prescriptions and organizing volumetrics that can interact with the surrounding and the future buildings along the central traverse of the block.
Scala houses 16 housing units and spans 7 levels. It presents a volumetrics that directly interacts with its environment and fits into the continuity of neighboring buildings already constructed while opening views of the larger landscape. Our project makes sense in the overall reading of the block and becomes a part of the urban composition in its role as the "figurehead" of the neighborhood. The building is sculpted to give rise to a stepped volumetrics (from R+1 to R+6) that allows for maximum sunlight while supporting generous outdoor spaces. A break is created at the heart of the street facade to create an event and a gap in the linearity.
One of the fundamental principles of the project lies in the external extension of spaces: "from inside to outside": pointed terraces and balconies, balconies integrated into the gap, and into the facade corners. The elevated balconies shift to offer protected outdoor spaces and double-height spaces to all units. This design intensifies the architectural uniqueness of the prow and provides different views for each apartment. To animate the ground floor, the tip of the building is completely open and houses the entrance, the service area up to the circulation core, and a generous bicycle storage. Only full-height wooden slats serve as partitions between the street and the entrance. This transparency, which highlights soft mobility, allows for a real connection between the exterior and the interior. Our approach is based on careful housing design and the presence of outdoor spaces for all, with the main objective being to offer a high-quality living environment and diversified living modes. Special attention has been paid to the orientation of the housing and the work of typologies. From T2 to T5, different typologies are proposed to offer a variety of housing. Each unit benefits from at least a dual orientation. The T3 and T4 units at the tip have triple orientation. The hall and common areas are naturally lit and very bright.
While respecting a tight budget, we sought to produce a building that is economical in materials to reduce its carbon footprint. This search for frugality and the elimination of the superfluous (no decorative cladding, unnecessary guardrails, etc.) is offset by numerous large windows that open up as many views as possible of the mountainous and urban landscape. In continuation of this thinking, the body of the building is composed of structural concrete covered with a common white paint for all the buildings of the block and a part of patterned concrete covered with a glittery terra cotta glaze that changes with the weather and exposure. The building, with its simplicity, integrates easily into its environment. There are no gimmicks; it is a project with a simple and elegant design that highlights cut volumes and generous openings.
