At the end of 2019, the Wild Rabbits Architects (WRA) delivered to Villejuif (Val-de-Marne), in a complex urban fabric, a small building intended to accommodate 17 students. Far from the image of the sad hutch for students, the hollow tooth thus inhabited now serves as an architectural and social link. Guided tour.
In time to walk the few hundred meters that separate the ‘Friendly Building’ from the metro station, an entire urban landscape unfolds: small pavilions, large social housing bars, new real estate operations. In short, in Villejuif, the urban fabric is varied.
For some time now, RATP Habitat has owned a small plot of 300 m², opposite the Karl Marx college, designed by André Lurçat in the 1930s and today classified as historical monuments.
What to do with such a small lot, in the midst of all these architectural elements that do not always get along very well? It was out of the question to add a new gesture, rather ” to enrich the neighborhood with a shared house, open to all residents, like a benevolent micro-institution », Explains Valdimir Doray, one of the two partners of the WRA agency.
« No definitive gesture to get everyone to agree – neither the program nor the size of the project was suitable – but an attitude, simple, open, attentive. A volumetry of large houses, a composition all in thresholds He said. Thus the ‘Friendly building’ shows a simple architecture that accompanies changes of scale without interruption. The threshold, expressed on the facade by the awning, marks the limit with the city, between the public and private space of the residence without revealing the privacy of the accommodation.
To bring calm to the street, the large obliques of the west facade have identical proportions to those of the gable of the gigantic neighboring bar. This bias reduces the perceived scale and opens a dialogue with the sloping roofs of the houses. It helps to finely articulate two antagonistic morphologies.
The wooden cladding, originally metallic, is painted white, in order to avoid the pitfall experienced a few years ago with the row houses located behind the ‘Friendly Building’ and whose wood used in the facade has particularly badly aged.
The structure is entirely made of 3D wood modules, designed and assembled in the workshop, then transported on site. It is lengthwise with a central slit. The side sails do not have to be superimposed on each other, which leaves the possibility of adjusting the partitioning to the needs, a bias that has proven to be very useful! Wood, prefabrication, architecture labeled PassivHaus, carbon footprint level, the ‘Friendly Building’ is the project of studious students.
It is the template of the transport trucks that dimensioned the size of the elements, drawn in 3D. Above all, the three-dimensional design made it possible here to erect a new building in record time. In four days, the modules were assembled, in twenty days, the ” Big work »Finished!
« For residents, a flash site is less polluting than months of rotations. It’s as much energy as usual, concentrated over a shorter period », Underlines Fabrice Lagarde, the other partner of the Parisian agency. All while respecting a budget fluctuating around 2000 € / m², ie a work budget equivalent to that of more traditional construction techniques.
The R + 3 building with attic setback indicates that some liberties have been taken with the City’s PLU. A dunce in the ‘Friendly Building’? In reality, what allows the project to rise a little higher than the neighboring pavilions is its status. Indeed, RATP habitat’s joint tenancy benefits from CINASPIC status, ie a kind of equipment, and no longer housing, which allows it to make a few proposals, to be negotiated directly with the city’s services.
« Thanks to this status and to discussions with the client and the municipality, we were able to manufacture a 2-meter setback in order to be able to open the windows on the south side and to better heat the building. », Says Fabrice Lagarde. This made it possible to enter into the prerogatives of the PassivHaus label!
These freedoms also favored the choice of a three-dimensional structure. Indeed, the heights of floors could be a little higher than on a traditional elevation and thus easily include the double floors induced by the superposition of the modules.
If the architecture tries to reconcile the heterogeneous urban fabric, it is the program that brings a social perspective on this part of the city. The ‘Friendly Building’ is indeed a student residence of a new kind. Managed by an association, AFEV (Association of the student foundation for the city), this project is a KAPS for “Kolocation à Projet Solidaire”, ie 17 students sharing the four housing units. .
In exchange for a very attractive rent, residents must carry out a parallel voluntary activity, such as homework help, a system inspired by the Belgian KOT *.
« Breaking with student hutches, solidarity and social shared accommodation makes it possible to imagine a place where we learn from each other to cultivate our solidarity instincts, esteem and confidence. Here, the thresholds are common, appropriate, usable and generous », Concludes Vladimir Doray.
To play even more on the porosity of the program, the goal for AFEV would also be to welcome, within a common room, a neighborhood life made up of support and activities of which the ‘Friendly Building’ would be the feature. union.
Alice Delaleu
* A kot (or kotje, small kot) is private accommodation rented to students during the school or university year in Belgium. This Belgianism initially designates a closet (brush kot) and by extension, a very small room such as a student room.
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