54-70 rues des Grands Moulins, Paris XIII district
The Paris Rive Gauche (Left Bank) operation is carried by an important urban project which physical foundation is made up of large industrial remains as well as an over sized train tracks bundle, located in Southeast Paris 13th district, bordering the Seine river. Said urban project aims at weaving once again the "city above the city" and to achieve a real lifestyle project with a social, cultural, economical and educational content which are instrumental in helping Paris to better face and anticipate the challenges of the coming decades. Upon a narrow plot, anchored south of Paris Left Bank urban development area, the RIVP (Paris Housing Authority) decided to build an unusual mixed use project: a psychology clinic, housing units and a university residence for students. By cleverly using the 7- to 9-meter level drop, our project is structured in three distinct yet intricately connected edifices:
- The clinic, two stories below street level, opens to the West thanks to its comb shape and towards courtyards and luminous, sunbathed gardens
- Pink terracotta blocks make up open pedestals facing the main street, on which the building core stands, fragmented in blocks, rhymed by colors, with a subtle work on matter (stucco and bricks) and volumes
- On the North end is the university residence's blade, enhanced by an angle tower made of eggplant-purple bricks
The whole project clearly assumes the plot length (120 m / 394 ft) as reality of the site, a kind of lived-in wall which is fragmented to create more familiar paces at block's scale while claiming its own monumentality. Facing the Salvation Army building by Le Corbusier, our project forms a linear counterpoint that underlines and conducts the North/South connecting axis between Paris Left Bank development area and the post industrial 13th district.
