Rue des Suisses Housing

Herzog & de Meuron – Paris France, 2000

Two distinct urban situations characterize the housing project in the 14th arrondissement of Paris: on the one hand, the blocks overlooking Rue des Suisses and Rue Jonquoy and on the other, the courtyard with high fire walls on the back (îlot).

Our two condominiums on Rue des Suisses and Rue Jonquoy are incorporated into the facade, typical of residential neighborhoods in many Parisian arrondissements. The verticals represent the overall design of the relatively homogeneous facades of the adjacent buildings. As in most 19th century Parisian neighborhoods, the street therefore conveys a certain elegance despite the fact that the individual buildings are not particularly attractive. Our two condominiums with a folded facade and folding shutters adapt perfectly to the vertical arrangement of the facade. Folding shutters can be individually adjusted by tenants so that, despite the targeted homogeneity of the facades, the overall impression of their appearance varies. As in the neighboring buildings, the apartments are accessible via a central staircase, with a doorman controlling the entrance on Rue des Suisses.

The situation in the back yard was completely different, because there were no predetermined urban specifications to use as a typological basis for the project. How should you go about designing apartments? What urban planning strategies should be pursued? What kind of buildings, what kind of architecture should be placed there?

We tried to create a relatively unusual model of life in the center of Paris, which would attract a completely different type of tenant from the buildings opposite. Instead of competing with the massive fire walls, we opted for a horizontal strategy, i.e. we kept the buildings low to ensure that as many apartments as possible were directly and intimately connected with the land and garden.

A long three-storey structure with balconies forms the backbone of the complex within the block. Adjacent to it are cottage-like one-story buildings for kitchens and bathrooms. In front of the long garden wall that runs along a courtyard of the school, we have built some small single-family houses with pitched roofs. The result seems an apparently random system of small units, courtyards and alleys with fragments of old and new walls covered with cultivated and wild vegetation.

This urban model is surprising when you enter the courtyard because it presents such a great contrast with the alignment of the nineteenth-century blocks facing the street. But looking more closely, we discover some remains of an even older pre-Haussmann district, narrow streets such as Villa Mallebay, Villa Duthy or Villa Jamot, whose proportions and proportions are reflected in our buildings.

The accommodations in the different buildings and parts of buildings vary greatly in size, layout and placement, but all are designed with maximum natural light and interesting courtyard views.

The concrete walls with a light facade were covered with a network of synthetic ropes, similar to a grid, to provide a growing base for climbing plants such as ivy and wild vines. The wooden roller shutters along the three-storey facade unfold on molded metal rails, giving the building a profile, like a piece of furniture.
Herzog & de Meuron