Mir architectes . photos: © Simone Bossi
The entrance pavilions occupy a strategic place because they articulate, symmetrically, the main entrance of the garden. Our proposal for the extensions of these pavilions attaches to respect the identity of the military barrack, while transforming and enlarging existing buildings to meet new needs. The intervention on existing buildings is sober and respectful of heritage building (replacement of the slates of the roof with the “original” tiles, replacement of the wooden windows, identical renovation of building façades, etc.) Insulation from the inside is also planned.
It is therefore a question of reducing the number of bearing points (and reinforcing the structure of the floor is the objective.) To promote transparency from the street towards the garden we increase the existing bays on the southwest frontage.
The extensions:
They are drawn like two prisms respecting the symmetrical system. These two prisms have the same design but to express the idea of false-twins their color will be slightly different. It is the concrete that will be the main material of the envelope. This concrete will have a strong and qualitative expression (cast in place end tinted in the mass)
The structure, intentionally fine to give the building a certain elegance, extends beyond the glass facade and thus forms “outer alcoves” whose rhythm and proportions have been designed to interact with the existing pavilions: the number of spans is 8 which equals the number of existing windows.
This concrete structure with important proportions (4 m of height) makes it possible, on the one hand, to orient the view towards the public garden, and on the other hand, to create an intermediate space sheltered and allowing various uses (terraces of coffee, smoking area, etc.). These alcoves act effectively as solar protection in summer, they are also equipped with textile blinds that optimize comfort (thermal and visual).
The interior volume is generous, clear of any point and very widely open to the public garden. It is extended outside by a terrace that encompasses the entire extension and thus forms a sort of “concrete base” that connects, in a simple geometry, the new and existing.
The façades of the extensions created on the garden side are deliberately not parallel to the facades of the existing pavilions: These two bias, besides the fact that they “dynamize” and orient the space, also make it possible to affirm the contemporaneity of the extensions by this “distinguished” formal.
The roofs are voluntarily treated horizontally which allows to create terraces accessible from the first level and designed as “fifth facades” because seen from the neighboring buildings.
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Architectes : Mir architectes
Collaborators : Arnaud Tek, Luc Firmin
Location : Paris (FR) , rue de Reuilly, 75012
Client : Paris Habitat OPH
Building Area : 1470 m²
Structural engineer : EVP (FR)
Construction company : GTM (FR)
Completed in 2019 – delivered raw without finishes
Photography : Simone Bossi (IT)
