>     U r b a n  R e n e w a l      b y    y e a r

 1990-1999    -    2000-2005

      >     U r b a n  R e n e w a l     b y   p r o j e c t


ATHIS-MONS, NOYER RENARD DISTRICT RESTRUCTURISATION
1999-2005

Mission : 8 partial missions
Cost : 12 million Euro

The operation for the improvement of comfort of the 1500 dwellings of this district, conducted 10 years ago, did not resolve the problem of its integration in its urban environment. The streets of the suburban districts fall into the building blocks of the large housing estates. Avoiding these areas only accentuates the risk of a " ghetto " image. With his point in mind, the Groupe Arcane elaborated a restructurisation plan comprising the following elements :

-visual openings and headway's that communicate spaces that are situated on either side of the housing estate.
-strong points implemented at the far end of the perspectives, in the axis of the surrounding streets.
-the re-treatment and hierarchical organization of the spaces- from public to private, in particular by their consistent cut-out to " residentialise " the district- the redefinition of the north entrance of the district around its commercial pole.
-improvement on public facilities.

before demolition
residentialisation


The entrances are throughways and despite the interphone system there results a kind of non appropriation of space by residents sharing the same stairwell.

The proposed system of residentialisation maintains the beneficial double access to exterior spaces as well as subscribing to the residents wishes for a better residential space.

For each double entrance that benefits already from common space in the basement, we created one garden in the front and one in the back which are very characteristic.

* The front garden plays a representational role as well as a shared space : it is fitted out with a classic fence, a gate controlled by an interphone system in lacquered steel and a group of household refuse bins with the multiple recycle bins integrated in the fence walls.

* The back garden is strictly a closed in space reserved for 20 residents. This space is particularly favorable as a playground for young children.




 

treatment of visual end stop

The sequences of facades situated in the axis of the surrounding streets benefit from architectural interventions marking the far end of the perspectives. They allow the dwellings concerned to benefit from substantial extensions : enlarging of kitchens on the east and west facades, enlarging of the lounges with balconies on the south facade.




urban breaches

Four openings are fitted out in the district putting in direct relation with the streets of the surrounding district, creating headway's and allowing transparencies to appear in the place of where one's glance used to fall on an opaque building blocks. Beyond the openings, a cut-out sky outlining the district opposite is visible.







breaches and extensions on breaches
The openings are made possible by the complete demolition of the stairwells.
Those dwellings situated on the newly obtained gables are enlarged.

These enlargements present two advantages:
1- They allow for the diversity of the topological possibility of the dwellings which were originally very restrictive.
2- They mark architecturally the great perspectives of the district.