The following description is courtesy of Manuelle Gautrand Architecture.
Paris, France – Among the 22 architectural projects selected from the call for innovative urban projects launched by the City of Paris, ‘REINVENTER PARIS 1’, our EDISON LITE project proposed a new housing model, based on three main principles that we established:
- The creation of ‘made-to-measure’ housing units, whereby the future residents were able to participate in establishing the brief as well as the design of their home;
- The provision of 20% extra surface area, defined and shared with the residents: this provides access to space and facilities that would not otherwise be available to individual residents;
- To welcome residents into an existing landscape: largely planted during works, the architectural project includes 75 m3 of soil, divided between 290 planters and a large, 150 m2 allotment on the roof.
Space Shared by Residents
These communal spaces were designed as a route, accompanying the residents and providing them with meeting places from the basement level right up to the roof. This provides them with areas and functions that they would not individually have been able to create.
- In the lower section of this route, at level -1, is a large workshop for residents’ use, close to their basement storage; on the ground floor is a secure bicycle storage area, accessed from the large shared entrance hall.
- On level 6 is a huge area comprising a south-facing sun deck and a west-facing open-air communal barbecue kitchen facility.
- Above, on level 7, is the 150 m2 allotment, which crowns the project with 360-degree views.
Close to Nature
Abundant planting in the communal spaces continues into the private spaces, constituting another major undertaking of the project. Situated on a narrow plot surrounded by buildings, some imposing, we designed facades that were both largely glazed but also largely planted, in order to create a kind of filter to mask direct views.
Thus 290 large planters punctuate the windows of the facade, with an average of 14 planters per unit, which, along with the shared allotment, equates to 10 m2 of soil per apartment!
The planters have been planted with 310 passionflower plants, which ‘belong’ to the collective, along with 4,320 bulbs and 1,418 rushes (Luzula) in the residents’ private planters.
More than 6,000 plants were thereby planted before the residents’ arrival, ensuring the established planted landscape that we see today.
The 150 m2 allotment is thereby divided up so that each resident has their own plot, in which they can plan and plant a vegetable patch.
Made-to-Measure’ Housing
Edison Lite is first and foremost a building of ‘made-to-measure’ housing, that is to say co-designed with its future residents.
Residents were selected from a great number of applications, organised and managed by the HABX platform. Once the residents had been selected, we worked with them initially to orientate them in choosing the position of their unit within the building, and then to guide them in the interior fit-out of their apartment.
Project Details
- Program: Apartment building containing 21 units: 13 units for the open market, 6 controlled rental units, 2 social housing rental units, with a crèche and a retail unit on the ground floor.
- Name: EDISON LITE
- Location: 71 Avenue Edison, 75013 Paris.
- Client: SCCP EDISON LITE
- (Loftissime + NFU / HABX)
- Architects: MANUELLE GAUTRAND ARCHITECTURE
- Landscaper: BUREAU BAS SMETS
- Engineers: S2T
- Quantity Surveyor: VPEAS
- Surface areas: 2,067 m²
- Construction cost: €4,300,000 excl. VAT
- Date: Completion: 2020
- Photo credits: © Luc Boegly
