Maison Latapie is a low-cost residential project resulting from a commission to build a home on a low budget for a couple with two children. Located in a discontinuous residential area, the house fits into the street profile. It is a simple volume on a rectangular base that includes two open platforms. On the street side of the residence, the metal frame is clad with opaque fibre-cement sheeting, while the other side, overlooking the garden, is covered with transparent polycarbonate sheeting to form a conservatory. A wooden volume – which is clamped onto the frame behind the opaque sheeting – defines an insulated and heated winter space opening onto the conservatory and the street-side exterior.

The conservatory faces east and receives the early morning sun. It is an inhabitable part of the house, equipped with ample ventilation panels for comfort in summer. The mobile nature of the east and west facades enables the house to change from its most closed configuration to its most open state according to the inhabitants’ needs and desires for light, transparency, intimacy, protection and ventilation. The inhabitable part of the house can vary according to the seasons, from the smallest spaces (the living room and bedrooms) to the largest area, by integrating the entire garden in high summer.
(from the architects’ project description)

During the Industrial Revolution, the SOMCO association was founded in Mulhouse to address workers’ residential issues. In 1853, it built terraced houses with gardens on single lots, with an average apartment size of 47 square metres, designed by engineer Émile Müller. The Cité manifeste was the first workers’ estate in France, and by the end of the 19th century it comprised 1,240 residential units on 60 hectares. On its 150th anniversary, SOMCO decided to adapt the estate to the needs of the new residents and the requirements of community housing, producing high-quality apartments for averageincome residents. Poitevin-Reynaud, Lewis-Potin & Block, Ban-de Gastines and Ateliers Jean Nouvel were invited to participate, along with our office. Together we worked on the development of the former Schoettlé grounds, each team having a long, narrow lot at its disposal. Altogether, 61 new apartments were built. Our experience guided us in constructing more spacious, open, free, bright, comfortable and cost-effective apartments than conventional residences.

We started from a simple and functional shell-shaped structure, whose volume was then divided into individual apartments. The ground floor consists of a three-metre-high ferro-concrete structure and generous openable glazing. Behind the glass doors, special curtains combining insulation and external aluminium tissue contribute to thermal comfort. The structure also includes a greenhouse, part of which is insulated and can be heated, and the other part has been left as a winter garden. These two parts are divided by openable interior glass elements. Automatic ventilation flaps on the roof regulate the interior climate, while horizontal interior shading elements provide additional comfort. Stretching along the whole width of the tract, all of the apartments have two levels: a large area on the ground floor and a small one on the upper floor, or vice-versa. 
(from the architects’ project description)

The project is located between Rue Bulher and Rue Neppert in Mulhouse, in the Neppert Gardens ZAC (zone d’aménagement concerté, a joint public and private development area), which includes 59 social rental dwellings developed by SOMCO, with an approach in continuity with the Cité manifeste project. The aims of our intervention were primarily focused on the inhabitants’ quality of living. Firstly, we wanted to create dwellings with larger surface areas than typical standards, as well as offering additional and intermediate spaces with different characteristics compared to traditional rooms in individual houses. These spaces widen the diversity of uses and climatic atmospheres, also by developing outdoor spaces that extend the indoor rooms, thereby bringing this collective housing closer to the qualities of an individual house. Finally, we wanted to optimise the number of dwellings in relation to the plot capacity, developing an efficient project economy to allow the construction of the largest possible surfaces for housing. Some dwellings are duplex apartments.

The flats from T1 to T5 have a dual aspect: the south-east oriented living rooms open onto an intimate terrace that can be widely opened in summer and fully closed in winter. These winter gardens define a bioclimatic system with natural ventilation, allowing the avoidance of overheating and creating a buffer space in winter that takes advantage of the sun’s radiation. The terraces also offer an extra space in addition to the living rooms, much like a private garden. The building has a high performance in terms of energy efficiency, while the constructive system is mostly composed of industrialised elements. Satisfying requirements concerning respect for the environment, the energy-saving design concept fits into a sustainable development philosophy. 
(from the architects’ project description)

 This twin operation of transformation and densification is sited in La Chesnaie in Saint-Nazaire, an emblematic area for town planning in the 1970s. It falls within the framework of the Ville-Ouest urban renewal project, through which the local council continues development along the ring road between the city centre and the town of Pornichet. Ideally situated between the sea and city centre, this development is surrounded by a green wooded site, beaches and open spaces, a variety of amenities, quality housing and public transport, but it has lost its attractiveness today. In opposition to current urban policy, which encourages the demolition of such areas regardless of their potential, the project proposes long-term requalification through the radical transformation of 40 apartments in one of the existing high-rises, and its densification through 40 new dwellings grafted onto its gable ends, taking advantage of the empty land around the buildings. Each existing apartment benefitted from a 33-square-metre increase in surface and the addition of a winter garden and balcony, without any major structural works or affecting the building’s organisation. Each bathroom was relocated in an existing nine-square-metre bedroom with a window, while a new bedroom was created in the extension and the former bathroom became a storage space.

The winter garden is served by a two-metre-wide climate control device consisting of moveable transparent panels with fabric screening. Combined with a one-metre-wide balcony, it was mounted in front of the original facade. The newly constructed apartments, backing onto the existing high-rise, also have a generous amount of space thanks to their winter gardens and balconies. The block’s transformation was more cost-effective than the demolition of the 40 existing flats and the reconstruction of 80 new ones, and ultimately provides apartments that surpass new construction standards.
(from the architects’ project description)

The quality of living spaces, their dimensions and comfort, determine the quality of urban life. The redevelopment of the Chêne-Bourg district of Canton Geneva, near the CEVA station (the local Cornavin–Eaux-Vives–Annemasse rail link), offered an opportunity to re-examine and renew the living space and its relation to the city. The project makes the most of the whole site, as well as the height and potential volume allowed by the planning regulations. The structure is simple and modular: a frame system that enables large surfaces to be left unobstructed and the profile of the facades to be completely freed from any structural constraints. In the same way, it makes it easy to manage the evolution of the distribution of functions in the long term. This enabled the insertion of five office platforms, which can be modulated from a single panoramic space to two, three or four independent spaces. To these are added 101 home units that exploit the differences in orientation and views and enjoy direct sunlight in both summer and winter.

The homes are spacious, pleasant and well lit, with the rooms mostly extending from side to side or with a dual aspect. They seek to recreate the qualities and character of a villa in the city. Each home unit has a winter garden and balconies, which extend the interior space. All the main rooms open onto these spaces through large floor-to-ceiling sliding windows, equipped for comfort with thermal curtains. The bioclimatic envelope consists of winter gardens that can be completely opened in summer, when they become large shady terraces. In winter, their glass facades can be closed to create protected climatic conditions, exploiting the level of sunlight and optimising the energy economy.
(from the architects’ project description)

Consisting in the transformation of three inhabited social buildings, the project was the first phase in the renovation of the Cité du Grand Parc. Built in the early 1960s, this housing development counts over 4,000 dwellings. The three buildings G, H and I – standing 10 to 15 storeys high – include 530 dwellings and offered the potential to be transformed into beautiful apartments with redefined qualities and comfort. The addition of winter gardens and balconies allowed each apartment to enjoy more natural light, greater fluidity of use and wider views. From the inside, the panorama of Bordeaux is unique thanks to the city’s low topography, providing an extraordinary living situation. For buildings G, H and I, a generous, economic and sustainable approach was adopted to immediately attain the qualities of highrise buildings for high-quality residences, defined as examples of responsible housing for the future. The project’s overall economy is based on the choice of conserving the existing buildings without carrying out major interventions on the structures, stairs or floors. 

This strategy made it possible to focus resources on generous extensions that are, in our view, key to enhancing the dwellings’ quality and dimensions in a lasting manner. These extensions expand the space of use and the evolution of the dwellings, as well as offering the opportunity, as in a house, to live outside while being at home. The apartments open onto large winter gardens and balconies, and offer pleasant outdoor spaces that are large enough to be fully utilised: 3.80 metres deep on the south facades of buildings H and I, and on the 2 facades of building G. Interventions to improve the interiors and restructure the bathrooms are also planned. The gardens at the foot of the buildings have been enhanced, facilitating their access and use. The project also deals with the overall performance of the building envelope, as well as the reconfiguration of vertical circulations and access halls.
(from the architects’ project description)