MVAC - Social clubs and Citizen's house

Maison de la vie associative et du citoyen

The Social clubs and Citizen's house is meant to be a model of environmental virtues translating into systems that everyone can see and apprehend. An educational architectural achievement whose first mission is to encourage all users to change their mindsets and thus their lifestyles. So the Big House is an innovative ecological manifesto which fits nicely into a historical urban fabric. A small-scale local utopia which creates social links with bright, soft spaces.

The idea behind the project is the creation of inner and outer quality places in a very dense and highly mineral urban context where no green spaces are to be found. The plot dedicated to the project being completely taken up by the entrance hall, the passage ways and utility rooms, the challenge was to find generous outer spaces likely to allow the clubs to pursue their activities in the open-air. So, a big patio was created on the third floor. This big planted patio could later be enclosed by glazed walls to make it usable all the year round and serve as a greenhouse opened onto the urban landscape of Saint-Ouen.The interior spaces can be made into new shapes or sizes and converted to new uses. Subdivisions will be flexible in time thanks to an open-plan design throughout all the floors of the building.

This project aims at a high environmental quality certification, a label which is as demanding as it is virtuous and which will vouch for the ecological qualities of the new building.

The project implements targets of the HQE Certification: Targets 4, 9, 11, 13 as Highly Performant, Targets 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10 as Performant, Targets 2, 7, 12, 14 as Basic Performance.