An previous submarine base in Bordeaux offered the internet site for this docklands housing complex by Agence Nicolas Michelin & Associés, the place homes and gardens are organized on either side of a glazed atrium .
The project is situated in the French city’s Les Bassins à Flot district, which was designated as a UNESCO Planet Heritage Web site in 2007 because of its maritime and manufacturing historical past.
The port spot is property to a former submarine bunker, locks, silos, docks and warehouses. Paris-based Agence Nicolas Michelin & Associés was tasked with transforming a block in the distinctive neighbourhood to develop each private and social housing.
Present properties and public amenities about the improvement have been preserved wherever feasible, and the new buildings have been positioned perpendicular to the port area to retain accessibility and views in the direction of the docks.
“The overarching goal of the urban arranging project was to piece with each other a mixed block where buildings for collective housing would share area with nearby facilities and buildings that maintained their current actions, or developed other individuals,” stated a statement from the architects.
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The development comprises two apartment buildings, positioned along both side of a shared atrium.
The first developing includes 149 social-housing units, with each other with trade workshops, while the other incorporates 196 privately owned apartments and units occupied by organizations.
Simulating the present industrial architecture in the neighbourhood, the buildings feature corrugated metal cladding and saw-toothed roof profiles reminiscent of warehouses. There is also a tiny tower at a single end of the complicated.
Parking is accommodated on the ground floor, with the very first-floor platform over housing atria that extend the complete length of the buildings. Shared reception locations open onto the central spaces, in which little gardens are divided up by pathways.
The atria are entirely enclosed and feature glazing on the north-facing surfaces of the roofs and solar panels facing south. Natural ventilation is facilitated by manually operated vents in the glazed surfaces.
“Covering this central spot helps make it possible to have significant vitality input,” the architects added. “Indeed, the atrium becomes a controlled inter-climate room enhancing the interior comfort degree all year round.”
The gardens have a variety of plants selected especially for this environment, which has a climate resembling that of temperate or oceanic regions. Mulch is integrated in between the plants to reduce the volume of watering required.
Taller plants are positioned shut to the central walkway, in which the depth of the soil is also higher to give them area to expand. “The plants are smaller sized in size as they method the walls, changing from an underbrush result to that of a moor at the edge of the buildings,” the venture team explained.
Inner balconies cantilever into the atria from the upper storeys of the some residences, while bridges traversing the spaces connect walkways offering accessibility to units on both side.
Square windows punctuate the highest element of the atria above the rooflines of the apartments to offer extra normal light to the central spot.
Photography is by Cyrille Weiner.
Ground floor program 
Very first floor strategy 
Third floor program 
Cross section 
Extended section Dezeen
