CANOPIA PARK

LIVING BETWEEN WIDE-OPEN AND SHARED SPACES

Winner 2014 of the Palmarès Grand Public Architecture Contemporaine in France, the residential development designed by Babin+Renaud is located in Nantes nearly completed eco-district, La Bottière-Chênaie. Surrounded by an open, arborescent landscape open to the public, it is akin to a welcoming island and is a good place to live. It is accessed from a brand-new plant-filled mall by climbing a few steps up to a raised interior courtyard. From this shared public space there are numerous choice views, in particular to the south towards a preserved natural setting and beyond, the metropolitan skyline.

The courtyard is surrounded by four buildings. On the south-east side a series of wide walkways on two levels give access to the housing units, which enjoy large terraces or balconies. On the north-west side there are twenty flats on four levels that look out to the more urban part of the new neighborhood which can be seen through five openwork stairwells. Two more vertical buildings on the north-east and south-west corners each contain some dozen smaller units. The first runs along the planted mall which contains an entrance lobby shared by all the residents and connects the raised courtyard to the shared space and a partially submerged parking garage.

In this configuration the development is characterized by the generosity and quality of the common spaces, whether its the different landings to the flats, the walkways that connect one building to another, the stairs that lead to the streets or the naturally-lit parking area. Shutters, balustrade and floors are as meticulously designed as the buildings architecture. Sparkling white, the innumerable vertical picture-windows, framed in shiny metal, jut out from the buildings minimalist surfaces. Opalescent glass, stainless-steel façades and sand-blasted concrete round out the projects visual and tactile pallet, the distinctiveness of which is as restrained as it is refined.

51 family housings in the urban landscape of Nantes, France. In this configuration the development is characterized by the generosity and quality of the common spaces, whether its the different landings to the flats, the walkways that connect one building to another, the stairs that lead to the streets or the naturally-lit parking area. Shutters, balustrade and floors are as meticulously designed as the buildings architecture. Sparkling white, the innumerable vertical picture-windows, framed in shiny metal, jut out from the buildings minimalist surfaces. Opalescent glass, stainless-steel façades and sand-blasted concrete round out the projects visual and tactile pallet, the distinctiveness of which is as restrained as it is refined.

CLIENT NANTES HABITAT
URBAN DEVELOPER NANTES MÉTROPOLE AMÉNAGEMENT
TOWN PLANNER JEAN-PIERRE PRANLAS DESCOURS
LANDSCAPE BRUEL–DELMAR

FLOOR SPACE 4 185 SQ M
SCHEDULE 2008 – 2014
COST 5 500 000 EUROS

ARCHITECTS BABIN+RENAUD

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING CONSULT ANCY EVP INGÉNIERIE
HVA C ENGINEERING CONSULT ANCY CFERM
CONSTRUCTION ECONOMICS MDETC

CANOPIA PARK by Jean Francois Renaud in France won the WA Award Cycle 20. Please find below the WA Award poster for this project.