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Architects: MDR Architectes
- Area: 2800 m²
- Year: 2014
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Photographs:Mathieu Ducros
Text description provided by the architects. This thirty flat housing project is located in the heart of Montpellier, in a confined plot, in the middle of protected wooden area.
The challenge of the project was to successfully integrate two dense buildings, of respectively six and four levels stories, in a preserved and heterogeneous environment: the architecture had to fit in with surrounding traditional style houses but also with modern buildings built in the seventies. These buildings are in tune within this complex context due to their architectural language, volumetry and contemporary style.
The narrowness of the plot is intended to best set up the buildings to get interesting frames while concealing them from any nuisances. Buildings face each other, have different heights and are oriented to improve views and natural lighting.
The facades shelter, behind a game of crinkles conceived to limit view of the building opposite, large and private loggias but also balconies made to provide tranquility for residents by removing co-visibilities. Attics are designed like vast petals made of textured and stained concrete in analogy of the immense pines of the site.
Thus all flats benefit from large exteriors and the top floors are seemingly nested in the trees where you can get a unique panoramic view of the city. Flats are bright and are never mono orientated. A focus on openings, orientations, solar protections and thermal performances fit with the environmental approach of the project.
The characteristic moulding on the façade is embodied in an interplay of material and contrasted colors. Materials are nobles and perennials: concrete, thermo-lacquered steel, roof tops and gravels.
The project enjoys a specific conception of the landscape design which reinforces the original qualities of the site: bamboo, mulching, gramineaes and Mediterranean plants that offer a qualitative base to the architecture.
