Fort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects

Fort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade
© Pierre L’Excellent

Fort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects - Exterior Photography, Windows, FacadeFort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects - Image 3 of 26Fort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects - Image 4 of 26Fort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects - Exterior Photography, Windows, FacadeFort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects - More Images+ 21

More SpecsLess Specs
Fort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade
© Pierre L’Excellent

Text description provided by the architects. The Ground floor+10-story “signal” building is located above an existing parking garage facing the beltway and takes advantage of the width of the access road to rise to the maximum height allowed by local zoning. The Ground floor+3-story horizontal “blade” building creates a gradual transition with the neighborhood to the west and behind the lot. Construction solutions have been adapted to the presence of the underground parking garage. In particular, owing to the fragile structure and the economic decision not to demolish it, the garage cannot be used. Thus, a stool-type framework encloses and passes through it at only a few points in order to ensure that the foundations and the new structure rest upon the stable ground. This structural configuration results in a simple and regular framework on the façade.

Fort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade
© Pierre L’Excellent

The project is located on a piece of land belonging to Adoma that benefits from an existing underground parking garage which has lost its authorization for use as a garage. Standing beside the Paris beltway, the project has been slipped in next to a business school and serves as a link between Paris and Levallois-Perret, of which the latter’s limits run along the back of the lot. This Janus-like function of urban link inspired the building’s dual façades.

Fort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects - Image 3 of 26
© Pierre L’Excellent

Given the complexity of execution owing to the presence of the garage and the impossibility of blocking nearby roadways, the project was mainly designed to be built with concrete prefabricated elsewhere. Concrete elements were imagined for easy yet subtle assembly thanks in particular to a rabbeted framework design, which also endows the whole with a dignified ornamental appearance.

Fort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects - Image 21 of 26
Floor plan

The limited load-bearing structure frees up room for large bays all the way around the building, which are either treated opaquely with brick, or transparently with glazing, and which can be modified as the building’s uses evolve (lofts, offices, family housing units, etc.). Though simple in appearance, the building’s design lends itself to two ways of perceiving it. The materials employed fit the softness of the lot’s context (concrete and brick in shades of gray). The skillful and nuanced treatment and color shading of these materials result in a common element accenting the large openings and indicating interior uses and qualities while also enhancing the building’s status as a “signal”.

Fort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects - Image 4 of 26
© Pierre L’Excellent

Imagined for young workers, the apartments offer compact floor areas (64 studios and 71-bedroom units in a “parents/ children” configuration). This requires providing additional value to each apartment in order to ensure quality living quarters. In this type of program, comfort and wellbeing are achieved through the attention given to the common areas, as well as views toward the outside.

Fort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects - Image 20 of 26
© Pierre L’Excellent

A covered double-height porch serves as the entrance to a large lobby at the base of the emerging building. In this same building, five units per floor are organized around corridors filled with natural light. The window arrangements alternated according to the floor in relation to the bare-bones structure opens many unique and far-reaching perspectives (the new home of the Tribunal de Grande Instance, the Eiffel Tower, broad landscapes, etc.). Apartments located in the blade structure benefit from views onto the garden located at the back of the lot, as well as wide corridors which can also serve as common areas.

Fort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects - Image 9 of 26
© Pierre L’Excellent

Project gallery

See allShow less

Project location

Address:12 Boulevard du Fort de Vaux, 75017 Paris, France

Click to open map
Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Fort de Vaux Residential Building / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects" 17 Dec 2019. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/930230/fort-de-vaux-residential-building-petitdidierprioux-architects> ISSN 0719-8884

You've started following your first account!

Did you know?

You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.