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Architects: Atela Architectes
- Area: 3976 m²
- Year: 2015
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Photographs:Gerardo Custance
Text description provided by the architects. Located in the heart of the Cité Internationale Universitarie in the 14th district of Paris (CIUP), the Maison du Mexique, a student residence built in 1952 by Jorge Medellin, is one of the most important examples of modern architecture in the campus.
Atela Architectes has been commissioned to achieve the complete refurbishment of the 4.000m² residency dealing with a very short delivery schedule. The opening was planned for July 2015, only one year after design had begun.
We have developed a series of strategies such as the recovery of the main entrance of the building, the complete restoration of the facade, the recovery of the original common dining rooms at every floor of the residence, amongst others in order to enhance the original building. These strategies have been combined with upgrading operations. The upgrade of the building in order to respect security, accessibility and electricity standards, as well as the improvement of the building's thermal and acoustic performances have been two of our priorities in this operation.
The building is divided in two blocks (5 and 3 floors) connected in the ground and garden levels . At both ends of each block we can find the common spaces (restrooms and kitchens with the recovered dining rooms). All the public spaces (auditorium, entrance hall and cafeteria) are located on the ground floor as well as the resident's library and the staff's offices. On the garden floor we find new accessible room for handicapped and double rooms. There are also a common kitchen and dining room, common restrooms, and technical and staff spaces.
The treatment of the building's surroundings has been done respecting the CIUP's requirements in order to maintain the campus' uniformity.
