Type: Direct commission
Location: St Etienne, France
Brief: Housing (60 apartments), commerce, parking
Client: Constructa
Area: 4,920 m²
Phase / Status: Concept design

Architects: Habiter Autrement (lead architect) / Chartier Dalix
Mia Hägg, Sandrine Forais / Fréderic Chartier

Team members: Lina Lagerström, Nicolas Métro, Noélie Sénéclauze



ST ÉTIENNE
Housing

The site for this project faces a TGV station near the city centre of St Etienne, in the eastern part of central France. The brief, consisting of 50 apartments, is part of a planned redevelopment of the entire area, including a hotel, offices and shops.

Instead of the traditional width of 15 m for a housing block, Habiter Autrement has proposed slender volumes with a width of 7 m. This allows every apartment a double orientation, an unusual feature in a project with a restricted budget. Two of these slim volumes are placed at the east and west ends of the site, facing each other, in the optimum orientation for natural lighting of the living spaces.


The street facades reference St Etienne’s mining history. Prefabricated concrete panels in mineral grey are stacked on the slabs, like books on a shelf. The irregular edges of the panels, which are aligned vertically all along the facade, are reminiscent of the cracks formed in a quarry as stone is cut and removed.

On the interior, each block has a brightly-coloured loggia, a clin d’œil (wink) to the coloured facades of Le Corbusier’s nearby Unité d’Habiation at Firminy. In between the two blocks, the ground is given to allotment gardens, where flowers can compliment the colours of the balconies. One for each apartment, the gardens are a valuable amenity for the residents and also the continuation of an important local tradition, as the very first allotments were developed here in St Etienne.
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Type: Direct commission
Location: St Etienne, France
Brief: Housing (60 apartments), commerce, parking
Client: Constructa
Area: 4,920 m²
Phase / Status: Concept design

Architects: Habiter Autrement (lead architect) / Chartier Dalix
Mia Hägg, Sandrine Forais / Fréderic Chartier

Team members: Lina Lagerström, Nicolas Métro, Noélie Sénéclauze



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