M9-C Building / BP Architectures

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Text description provided by the architects. There were two challenges in designing the M9-C project: having to mix four different uses - school, culture, housing and parking - on one complicated plot; and addressing the issues of density and shaping the city on the edge of Paris’s 13th arrondissement. By superimposing the four projects on top of each other, the project connects the recent “upper” city landscape above the railways tracks leading to the Gare d’Austerlitz and the ground-level lower city along Rue Chevaleret by means of a lift for pedestrians. The project’s distinctly urban outline, the varying styles of façade (smooth along the line of the urban development zone; pleated, folded and divided towards the centre of the plot) and the strict structure due to the immediate vicinity of the railway tracks make this a unique building. It is a combination of architecture and civil engineering, concealing its complexity to allow the variety of public and private space, the attention to detail and an element of surprise to shine forth.