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The project pays homage to Paris,to the architecture of the 19th century, andto the Haussmann building. A perfect extrusionof the parcel, the project introduces, throughits flexibility, the notion that by emptyingnan architecture of its program, a buildinggenerates potential that will accompanynthe evolutions in urban development and allow itnto respond more readily to changes in use.

Lot 4.2 is part of the new Clichy-Batignolles mixed development area and is located at the edge of boulevard Pereire, at the meeting point of two different periods in the history of Paris’ urban development. The building plays a key role in linking these two architectural worlds.

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Left:L’illustration, Paris, 11 January 1845,Les cinq étages du monde parisien, illustration by Lavielle.

The project renders homage to Paris and the 19th century architecture of the Haussmann building. It seeks to preserve the “intrinsic intelligence of this form,” which has allowed the buildings constructed during the Haussmann period to survive many changes and grow with the city, providing multiple, often very different uses of the same building.

The Haussmann building was designed primarily as a place of residence for the bourgeoisie, but it revealed itself to be an extraordinarily open architecture capable of incorporating other uses besides habitation: offices, stores, workshops, schools, etc.There are common characteristics in all these architectures that lie at the base of this flexibility: a clear structure,a ground floor that is accessible fromthe street and which can extend to include the mezzanine, a wealth and variety of door and window openings to allow for the construction of all kinds of plans, variable heights in the floors, adequate thickness, and a high level of compactness. We consider these values as the great heritage of the Parisian building, and we have sought to translate them into an architecture that forms part of the city’s current logic, but which also offers solutions to current and future challenges.

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The design of the façade for Lot 4.2 uses a structural pattern similar to the office buildings (1.35 meters). It alternates one full module with two empty ones, which correspond to the window openings. Together with the core of the circulation, this ensures the building’s structure. The height between floors is 3.2 meters, halfway between the standard height for residential housing (2.8 meters) and that for office buildings (3.5 meters). The commercial ground floor includes part of the 1st floor; its slightly different treatment indicates its urban character. The ornamentation borrows various elements from the Haussmann style, especially the horizontal stretchers that mark the piano nobile, as well as the proportion of fullness and emptiness.

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The volume is a perfect extrusion of the triangular parcel which fully exploits all the plot’s spatial possibilities. Through its flexibility, the project introduces the notion that by emptying an architecture of its program, a building generates potential that will accompany the evolutions in urban development and allow it to respond more readily to changes in use.The rue de Saussure building seeks to anticipate needs and changes by proposing a full reversibility between a residential and an office building. At the same time, this sense of openness gives each residence a very particular quality. The apartments have a lot of windows and are very well lit and spacious. They are all set up around a loggia, an extension of the interior living space towards the exterior. This type of patio also has a thermal function, introducing a new orientation in the building that helps ventilate the housing during the summer months.

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Above and beyond the classic,standard ratio, the mostly glass façades significantly enhance the quality of the building’s uses, which benefit from and abundance of natural light and views.The size and regularity of the door and window openings, which are identical on the three façades, create a general image of the building without specifically denoting its use. A series of architectural distinctions on the façades compensates for the different levels of thermal comfort required on the northern and southern sides. The variations play out in the size of the openings – French doors which open fully to the south versus halfheight windows to the north – in the position of the windows in relation to the façade, which use its thickness to create an interior projected shadow, in the position of the stores, inside and outside, as well as in the materiality  of the railing, which is made of glass or stainless steel mesh.

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The materials favor a certain sobriety and are limited in number:polished concrete tinted black for the prefabricated panels for the façade, black lacquered aluminum for the concealed opening frames, glass for the windows, both for the half-height windows and the railings, stainless steel mesh, etc.

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The flexibility addresses the multiple uses to be observed in Haussmann buildings: housing, commerce, schools, banks, offices, etc. The rue de Saussure building seeks to anticipate needs and changes, in particular by proposing a full reversibility between a residential and an office building. The configuration of the floors, the spatial proportions, the regularity of the door and window openings in the façade, as well as the structural system all facilitate the modification of the interior layouts.

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The building was configured to have flexibility even its structural system, which is in fact composed of a loadbearing core which contains all the horizontal and vertical circulations, and trumeaus surrounding the windows which take the vertical load distribution from the façade. Brick walls separate the apartments, and the partitions that define the rooms can be removed to create space for offices.

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A regular succession of full and empty spaces, concrete and glass, the façades make the project very iconic. The ornamentation borrows various elements from the Haussmann style, especially the horizontal stretchers that mark the piano nobile, as well as the proportion of fullness and emptiness,which here has been inverted.

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The project design was an opportunity consider the Haussmann building as a type, above and beyond the formal, size-related, or even ornamental aspects. Certain notions struck us emblematic. A clear structure, a ground floor that looks out onto the street, a wealth of door and window openings that allow for the construction of all kinds of plans, variable heights between floors, an adequate thickness, and a high level of compactness.

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The loggias are arranged in a way so that they never hang directly over one another, thereby creating an interplay of fullness and emptiness that enlivens the façade. To the north, the fittings are placed flush with the façade; the railings are made of glass. Contrarily, to the south, the fittings are set back to create a shadow; the railings are made of stainless steel mesh. The design of the concealed opening frames has been simplified to the maximum, and they exhibit few lines in the façade. They contribute to the building’s sobriety, whose image tends towards abstraction.

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All Photos © Julien Lanoo

Project Facts

Program:40 housing units and commercial spaces

Client:ICF Novedis

Address:ZAC Saussure Pont-Cardinet, Îlot 4.2, Paris 17e

Cost:EUR 5.9M, before taxes

Nua:3,700mÇ Floor Area: 2,900mÇ

Schedule: 2010 – 2014

Team:LAN (Commissioned Architects),Bollinger+Grohmann (Structure), AgenceFranck Boutté (HQE Consultant), LBE (Fluids),JP Tohier & Associés (Budget Surveyor).

> via lan-paris.com