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Architects: Hamonic + Masson & Associés
- Area: 3200 m²
- Year: 2014
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Photographs:Sergio Grazia, Christophe Demonfaucon
Text description provided by the architects. The ‘Golden Cube’ student residence project is situated on the ‘A4 Est’ sector of Le Trapèze. This particular lot acts as a point of liason between the existing Boulogne and the new construction development. Here there is a strong importance surrounding the unification of urban density, diversity and pleasure, underscored by the incorporation of ecology and bio-diversity, in order to integrate nature into the heart of the urban environment.
Some of the fundamental principles that guided the programmation and construction of A4 Est were a coherence and harmony of buildings, limitation of vis-à-vis, construction at intermediate height to maintain a human scale and a blending of exterior and interior limits by offering loggias and exterior space.
The guiding principles of these student halls of residence were standardisation, self-regulation and a maximisation of internal space. This project, with its 156 rooms in an 8-storey building taking up almost the entire plot, is no exception to this rule. There is nonetheless a secret gar- den, as the project coordinators, Loci Anima, were keen to reintroduce some biodiversity onto the island.
Every flat has an outdoor area. A 1.5-metre recess allowed us to include loggias along almost the entire façade. The building’s outline is blurred by the use of filters, water effects and ope- nings in the perforated sheets of steel. It is also dotted with birdhouses. The occupants cannot interfere with them and they require no maintenance.
We were confronted with a dense setting and the client’s demand for cost-effectiveness. Despite a compact context, offering quality of use was an imperative. Afterall, students are humans and not a product. The design process consequently revolved around this problematic: is it possible to propose a different living environment where life is the main subject ?
