Description

On the 150th anniversary of the completion of France’s first major workers’ housing complex, the creation of a new and innovative housing development has been initiated by the same social housing association at the same location. The design is an adaptation of the historic building type and the process of ongoing modification to the latter by the residents.

The so-called “Carré mulhousien” linked four houses on a cruciform plan into a single structure. Conversions and various expansions ensued over time. In the new project, four housing units – two of which are back-to-back where they have the kitchen and bathroom – form a single freestanding block. The ground floor living room at the center of the unit is 5 m high; the bedrooms are inserted as cubes or “docked” at the outside on the upper or lower level and some on both levels. The sliding elements in front of the loft space above the kitchen/bathroom block facilitate variable uses: as an open space for socializing or a quiet, more private space.

The result is a complex spatial construct, with additional densification of use on the outside in the form of wire-mesh enclosed gazebos for plants, open spaces, external stairs, and parking pads. The entire construct is rather like a complex parcours where spatial boundaries have been almost dissolved, than an enclosed apartment complex.

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Originally published in: Oliver Heckmann, Friederike Schneider (eds.), Floor Plan Manual Housing, fourth revised and expanded edition, Birkhäuser, 2011.