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Architects: BVL Architecture
- Area: 1920 m²
- Year: 2014
- photographs: Sergio Grazia
Text description provided by the architects. This building of public housing, built by BVL Architecture in Limoges, a town of 140 000 inhabitants in the centre of France, is located on one of the driveways to the town centre, at the intersection of a busy road and a residential street. The building signalizes the crossroads with its size and its contemporary architecture.
The whole architecture is set on a forged raw concrete plinth, sustaining four floors of accommodation. The last two floors, fitting duplex flats are partially dressed in wood. The outline of the façade matches individualized work.
The main façade is on the East side of the building. It overlooks a busy street and follows the urban alignment. Front walkways allow access to floor 1, 2 and 3. These flats are acoustically protected by an openwork glass skin.
This glass skin allows natural light in and onto the staircase. A wooden terrace-loggia emerges from the façade at the angle of the third floor, “signaling” the crossroads.
The northern façade is more “monolithic”. Its design is declined through subtle variations of empty spaces and full structures, where folding shutters, overhangs from balconies of the loggias, and the emergence of wooden “boxes”underline the range of the street.
The back façades (South and West) particularly well oriented, benefit from deep terraces, developed as emerging volumes, mixing painted concrete and wooden porticoes/“brise-soleil” (sun breaker). The flats of floor 3 and 4 are entirely built in wood structures and wood covering.
The contemporary wooden architecture reveals itself in the urban landscape.
