Paris Rive Gauche is a development project covering the entire Eastern side of the 13th Arrondissement. It aims to establish connections and continuity between the neighborhoods of the 13th Arrondissement and the Seine, and between Paris and Ivry-sur-Seine. To organise these connections on such a complex territory, the urban project proposes to lean on the road infrastructure to bring out, in the Massena-Bruneseau sector, a neighborhood that will take heights and install a new metropolitan urban landscape along the Seine. Benefitting from an exceptional location on the Seine, the B1A3 plot is a key point of this new urbanity and will be location for the 50-metres-high wooden housing tower.

To design a wooden building is above all to study a structural framework that can match its functional program. Here, the framing of the building is defined in relation to the size of the dwellings; the strategy is to compose with a dimension of 3.90 metres to easily adapt to any type of dwelling. Added to this was the desire to split levels to reinforce the idea of double scale. The building appears to be an eight-storeys one because the readable slab levels appear only on both levels.

As a symbol of the link between the old ceiling of Paris and this new urbanism, the volume of the project opens to the city through the creation of a common floor on the 8th floor. This space benefits from a view of the city and provides services common to the 105 units: kitchens and shared terrace equipped with flexible and mobile furniture. It finds further resonance with the city through the treatment of its lower portion, which will become a place of artistic expression visible from afar.

One of the urban matters is also the management of the important elevation change (about 7 metres) between the Quai d’Ivry and the ground floor accessible through Boulevard General Jean Simon. On the Quai d’Ivry side, the double height façade of a climbing room occupies the entire width of the plot. Shallow, this space is entirely assigned to the entrance of the room and extends quickly in a mezzanine (ground floor + 1), where the climbing areas are concentrated.

This important 650 m2 plateau dedicated to this activity, which dialogues with the first-floor housing units thanks to its double height, opens on both the boulevard and the plot, thus reinforcing its attractiveness.

At the centre of the base, the hall connects to the covered outdoor pathway, which bridges the lot to adjacent buildings in case of flooding.

The two vertical housing circulations extend to the square level, providing a secondary entrance. Thus, the housing lobby, restaurant area, and the first floor living units form a homogeneous and revised commercial base, the principle of which is to extend the street by transparency.

Transparency is the dominant theme of the façade. Generally protected and hidden, the wooden structure is instead deliberately exposed. It is entirely encapsulated in glass to make it visible. Usually matt, the wood becomes reflective thanks to its protective layer.

The dialogue between transparency and light gives the project an exceptional materiality and allows to create a visible marker from the platforms, subtly signaling the building.

Client: REI HABITAT / Planner: Semapa / Budget: € 23,5M excl. VAT / Surface: 8 900 m² / Schedule : 2017-2023 / Team: LAN (Architect), SINTEO (Fluid engineering), Elioth (Environment, Structure and Façade engineering), BMF (Economy), Casso & associés (Fire safety engineering), Apave (Control office), Jean-Paul Lamoureux (Acoustic), Atelier Georges (Landscape)