herzog & de meuron rue des suisses, paris, rue des suisses, paris, … · 2017. 1. 4. · suisses...
TRANSCRIPT
-
herzog & de meuron
rue des suisses, paris, rue des suisses, paris, rue des suisses, paris, rue des suisses, paris, 1996199619961996----2000200020002000
-
http://www.housingprototypes.org/project?File_No=
FRA023
This is the first project in Paris by the Herzog/De
Meuron team on an unusual site in the 14th
Arrondisement not far from Gare Montparnesse.
The result of a 1966 competition sponsored by the
Paris public housing agency Régie Immobilière de la
Paris (RVIP), the project is built on three
interconnected parcels that include infill sites on
two sides of a long perimeter block that face a
long narrow plot on the interior of the block. The
infill buildings are built to the neighborhood height
of 7 floors, while the interior slab is only 3 floors
in height. Entry to the interior of the block is
made beneath the infill buildings. In addition to the
4 story difference in building height, the long
narrow block designed as a free-standing element
in a long narrow garden and is protected with
curving rolling wooden blinds that are in sharp
contrast to the folding metal blinds that cover the
facades of the street buildings. The three
buildings contain about 60 flats and basement
parking for about 50 cars is provided beneath the
infill block on Rue des Suisses and extends into
the courtyard beneath the interior building.
-
The street buildings are both point-access types.
The larger block facing Rue des Suisses has
several apartments per floor that face either the
street or garden while the narrow block on Rue
Jonquoy has only one flat per floor with frontage
on both the street and the garden. The long
narrow building is also a point access type that
has several entrances that serve three floors of
larger flats. The ground floor apartments are
organized with the living spaces and bedrooms
facing a narrow porch along the public walkway
through the garden and a narrow one story high
zone that contains the baths and kitchens that
attaches to the back side of the long block
forming small interior courtyards. Baths, kitchens
and circulation are organized along the rear side
of the flats on the two upper floors. Living
spaces here also open to the continuous balconies
that face southwest. Two, two story high gable-
roofed small houses are placed in the garden
opposite the two main entrances to the long block.
These tiny cottages also form several court areas
in the garden and help maintain a residential scale
to the arrangement on the interior of the block.
The street buildings are both point-access types.
The larger block facing Rue des Suisses has
several apartments per floor that face either the
street or garden while the narrow block on Rue
Jonquoy has only one flat per floor with frontage
on both the street and the garden. The long
narrow building is also a point access type that
has several entrances that serve three floors of
larger flats. The ground floor apartments are
organized with the living spaces and bedrooms
facing a narrow porch along the public walkway
through the garden and a narrow one story high
zone that contains the baths and kitchens that
attaches to the back side of the long block
forming small interior courtyards. Baths, kitchens
and circulation are organized along the rear side
of the flats on the two upper floors. Living spaces
here also open to the continuous balconies that
face southwest. Two, two story high gable-roofed
small houses are placed in the garden opposite the
two main entrances to the long block. These tiny
cottages also form several court areas in the
garden and help maintain a residential scale to the
arrangement on the interior of the block.
-
Vines grow on a system of metal wires fastened
to the blank walls of the garden buildings, help to
create an overgrown, unkempt ambience to the
landscape areas. The garden block sets up slightly
from the ground on an articulated base suggesting
a porch or veranda along the walkway through the
garden area. The roll-down blinds completely cover
the porch areas. While there is an obvious loss of
privacy along the ground floor apartments, the
slightly raised setback condition gives some
separation from the garden walkway. The upper
balconies cantilever out slightly forming an
undulating, slightly overhanging quality that
further softens the garden spaces.
The 7 story, point-access block facing Rue des
Suisses has undulating facades facing both the
street and the interior garden. The curved facade,
which is seen at the end of a long narrow street,
makes an easy transition between existing
buildings to either side but also emphasizes the
system of metal shutters covering windows
between floor slabs creating a continuous
screened surface. This system of folding grilles is
used on both street and garden facades and is
the latest version of similar shuttering systems
that have become a leitmotif of Herzog & De
Meuron designs.
-
When closed the shutters form a continuous grille
between the narrow horizontal bands of the edge
of the floor slabs that are the same color as the
shutters. The full-height, hinged shutters are
made of perforated, corrugated aluminum panels
that are supported by steel rods connecting
between floor slabs. These panels, 412 mm in
width (16") and 28 mm (1 1/8") thick, are secured
to the vertical support rods with stainless steel
hinges and are finished in a durable dark gray,
polyester powder coating. A narrow balcony and
steel balustrade separate the plane of shutters
from the floor to ceiling glass wall of the
apartment interiors. In the fully open position, the
shutters hinge into groups of 6 panels that
extend forward of the surface of the façade
creating discontinuous vertical bands that give a
highly structural albeit chaotic appearance to the
façade and help create the impression of several
compressed layers of materials: shutter,
balustrade, the space of the balcony and the dark
aluminum glass wall of the dwellings. This shutter
system extends from the sidewalk through the 6th
floor. The top floor sets back from the plane of
the façade and has roll-down metal blinds of the
same color that reinforce the reading of a distinct
attic condition.
-
Rue des Suisses is a good example of recent
projects in Paris that focus on rebuilding the
typical perimeter blocks in different areas of the
city while upgrading the quality of the housing
stock. While the apartments themselves are
typical small flats, the strategy to put the
smaller flats in the infill buildings and organize
the family dwellings together in the garden area
and the high detail finish of all three buildings
attest to the high standards of RVIP. The
sophisticated shuttering system used here
combines the traditional use of the window
shutter as a means to control light and provide
security and privacy with the need to adapt the
modernist concept of the glass curtain wall with
the contextual need to fit comfortably with an
existing stock of different buildings. While the
street facades undulate in plan and have a
vertical, folding shutter system made of metal,
the garden block has a south façade that
undulates in section and has a horizontal, roll-
down wooden shutter system. Finally, a sheer
glass façade might have been a harsh intrusion,
but the undulating, layered, shuttered system
maintains the wall surface while creating a
changing pattern of distinct, repetitive openings
like the neighboring buildings.