Rue Du Chateau Des Rentiers’ Housing / Explorations Architecture

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Text description provided by the architects. Explorations Architecture has completed a social housing project in Paris (13e arrondissement). It is located on the Rue du Chateau des Rentiers, in a neighborhood of mixed urban typologies including Haussmanian buildings, villas and large housings projects from the 1960-70s.

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Deep and narrow, the plot is set between two buildings which are not aligned to the street. The connection to the street is at an angle. The project required the creation of a public passage along the length of the site and leaves openings in the dividing wall to the neighboring building unobstructed.

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The site constraints led to the building’s complex geometry, made of folds and retreats, which maximizes the constructability of the site. All drawings copyright explorations architecture All photos copyright Michel Denancé It is an 8-level-building. A porch creates a visual opening on a large garden in the interior of the plot. The successive setbacks help to create large accessible terraces.

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The materials (oxidised copper panels and shutters, copper-tinted concrete slabs) and the abstracted, trembling façade allow a ‘soft’ insertion between the neighboring buildings of contrasting architectural styles: a brick building from the 20th century and vast 1970s office building with a distinctive curtain wall. The T-shape apartment plans provide bedrooms in one wing and living rooms in the other.

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Above a street front commercial space, the first floors are composed of back-to-back apartments in which one faces the street and the other the courtyard. The upper floors provide one residence per floor with a transversal living room offering views in multiple directions.

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