AFFORDABLE PARIS

A piece of urbanity for social workers:complexity of the city and serenity of home

"To make peace" is the guiding principle of the social residence (93) Saint-Denis delivered by the agency Babin + Renaud. Pacify the site first : bordering the park of the Legion of Honour, he slips into a web of disparate buildings called to densify in the development of the site "Porte de Paris". Then, pacify the program itself: the program of social residence has evolved into today often a permanent place of residence for workers. The aim of the architects is here to offer residents a welcoming and human despite the erosion of public areas of this type of program. A place to share as much as to live.

It took eight years to deliver this social residence of 5 375 qdM: eight years to fulfill the promise of a project that promotes the concept of "live" at the expense of any functionalist expression. The project follows the demolition of the largest workers' hostel in France in the same location.

Small volumes of the residence borrow from the townhouse her figure and its vernacular: Since the aisle, each entry is highlighted by a gate marking the second threshold privacy of residents, the right to an outdoor courtyard is extending upstairs by wide protected by wooden trellises bearings. Seven different types of housing co-exist here. While the south building houses the living areas of the residence (internet café, laundry, linen, mailboxes ...), the north building houses the offices and studio of the team responsible for the operation of the residence. The transition from heterogeneous tissue of individual small and future buildings in the BIA and is drawn to scale of the plot, giving the operation a major urban role.