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Architects: Yves Ballot et Nathalie Franck
- Area: 3120 m²
- Year: 2013
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Photographs:Antoine Guilhem Ducléon
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Manufacturers: AutoDesk, Arcelor Mittal, Tilly
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Lead Architects: Yves Ballot, Nathalie Franck
Text description provided by the architects. Location. This operation is located on "block E2" of the Z.A.C. Monges Croix-du-Sud designed by Bruno Fortier and Michel Desvignes in Cornebarrieu, a village on the northern outskirts of Toulouse. This urbanization enjoys a landscape where valleys, woods, hedgerows, views towards the old village have been preserved in PAZ, while only the wooded hillside of the Coulommiers road separates Cornebarrieu from the major airport sites of Blagnac.
This collective of 45 housing units is located on a platform created in the slope of the natural land facing due east. Like the other platforms provided for in P.A.Z, it is surrounded by a shrub table, a sort of base for the building while reinforcing the effect of an open balcony on the large landscape sometimes magically animated at the back by the Pyrenees.
Program And Architectural Treatment. The building is all in wood. It brings together the 45 apartments spread over 3 levels and in the basement a parking lot with 47 spaces. Known as "the milestone" because of its dominant position, at the confluence of the "Parkway" of the ZAC and the North alley, it plays the role of a ball joint on the urban level. Its particular geometry with its "folded" shape, relates to the main directions given by the large planted access roads of the ZAC.
East Side / West Side, A Double Face. The "Jalon" unfolds and offers itself to the landscape on the east side. Its architectural treatment in horizontal layers lowers its height, reinforces its directions and creates a dynamic that resonates with the surrounding landscape. From the parkway, depending on the points or angles of view, totally different perceptions of this building appear, fluid fragments or continuities up to the North and South gables which oppose their frontality.
On the west side, it folds up to form with the foliage of the "Talabot path" a more intimate space, punctuated at the entrance by a pergola housing other parking lots. The facade expression plays more on verticality. Hollow and solid alternate in the upper levels, received on the continuous horizontal of the awning of the ground floor. This houses the glass airlocks of halls A and B giving access to the upper floors. This backyard gives direct access to the apartments on the ground floor West. A central passage between the north and south wings opens onto the platform and its unobstructed view. It leads to the RDC Est accommodation.
The exercise for us was to develop this particular shape from the thickness of the facade, made up of the exterior spaces as extensions of the housing; Extremely standard accommodation, most of which are small in size, suitable for a more modest clientele, the Z.A.C also offering a majority of individual T4 accommodation.
Each level offers a different relationship to the outside: terraces on the ground floor, loggias on the ground floor, balconies on the ground floor. The large projection of the first floor eliminates the high and low views towards the ground floor terraces and the balconies of the 2nd floor. These thicknesses of the facade formulate the architecture of this building. Metal structures entirely suspend the loggias and balconies of the 2 upper levels, freeing up the covered space on the ground floor which thus completely detaches the stratum formed by the rhythm of the breezes seen from the loggias of the R + 1.
The proposal to Bouygues Immobilier to create this BBC complex with a wooden frame and the shape taken by the building, allowed us to escape the model of the "barre" collective. Woodwork and volumetry, an elongated low-rise template, helps to make this apartment building surrounded by nature stand out.
Materials. On the entire ground floor and at the bottom of the western loggias, the wood cladding is treated with 3-ply Douglas wood panels. The facades of the upper levels are clad in full height Douglas wood slats, distinguishing them from the ground floor. The exterior joinery is in larch wood, full height and decorated with hinged shutters.
Glass angles enrich the interior of the accommodation and its relation to the exterior. The breezes seen from the R + 1 loggias are in laminated Douglas wood. The attic in Douglas wood cleats on a metal frame conceals the sensors and air renewal units. Galvanized steel bar guardrails accompany the volumetry of their transparent envelopes. The covers, also in galvanized steel, underline the horizontals.
