STAR strategies + architecture
A new generation of social and affordable private housing in France; when housing adapts to its inhabitants and not the other way around.
At the confluence of the rivers Seine and Marne START seeks to create a new skyline for Ivry and accomplish a double objective in terms of housing: reinventing the residential tower and creating exceptional and innovative apartments – an urgent alternative to the current and paradoxical housing standardization at a time when we are witnessing the greatest diversification of households ever known.
Households are increasingly characterized by a differentiation of lifestyles: single-parents, patchwork-families, flat-sharing communities, unemployed young people, senior citizens in need of help, intergenerational cohabitations, working from home, young adults returning temporarily to their parents’ home, etc.
Apartments are now standardized “containers” reflecting regulations and budget constraints but certainly not reflecting the fascinating and diverse needs of their inhabitants.
The society of today – with all its contradictions and its great diversity – cannot be represented in the homogeneity of a standardized floorplan. This conviction inspired START: a project that takes the inhabitants and their lifestyles as its starting point in order to develop housing that adapts to their particular situation and development. The apartment thus ceases to be a burden, and becomes a support for their personal growth.
It is the apartment that adapts to its inhabitants and not the other way around: it can be enlarged to prepare for the arrival of a child; a kitchen can be moved to the living-room to make space for an extra bedroom; two children’s bedrooms when no longer needed can be transformed into an independent studio-flat for rent; the living-room can be temporarily divided into two spaces to host a child on alternating custody, etc.
This ideal project also supports interactions between its residents by offering them several shared spaces: the building becomes the support system for a reactivated social life.
START is composed of 5 buildings ranging from 12-18 floors, all following the same conceptual principles. It hosts 288 apartments (up to 350 after future division) and 14 commercial spaces. The total surface area is 22,863m², of which 19,700m² is residential, including 34% social housing.
START rethinks outdated design dogmas, confronts the current standardisation trend, and finds productive answers to create resilient social structures. START is both a manifesto and proof that it is possible to build better without adding surface and within a very modest budget.
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