EVA TOOM  portfolio

LIVING BETWEEN A PARK AND A CITY

 

URBAN ANALYSES, URBAN STRATEGY

EVOLUTIVE COLLECTIVE HOUSING

A fourth year project

 

The site of this project is situated on the limit between Bagnolet and Montreuil along the park Jean-Moulin les Guilands in the eastern suburbs of Paris. It is a neighborhood with an extremely rich urban fabric characterized by late 19th century small-scale industrial heritage, informal housing areas and a long gardening tradition. The semester started with an extensive urban analyses and an urban strategy developed in mixed groups of French students and Thai students from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

 

Our urban acupuncture strategy aimed to create a stronger identity to this neighborhood by redefining the existing heritage, increasing the connectivity of surrounding urban fabric and promoting growth from the bottom-up.

 

My personal continuation to this group work was a small-scale collective housing project between the park and avenue Chanzy. A garden surrounds the seven three-storey apartment blocks, creating a smooth transition between the park and the city. Each block contains a central hall that distributes two apartments per level. All apartments have three orientations and a vast terrace that can be used for building an extra room or two in order to extend it. Some common facilities, such as a bicycle and stroller storage, a laundry area, a bigger multifunctional room, and private storage spaces are situated on the semi-underground basement level. The project consists of a variety of different-size apartments, but their common feature is north- or east-facing bedrooms and south- or west-facing living areas that open towards terraces creating continuity between interior and exterior. There are two main types of apartment layouts. When the terrace is situated sidelong, the kitchen becomes an independent object or a big multifunctional pièce of furniture useful from each side. When the terrace is positioned in the main orientation of the living room, the kitchen is situated along the side facade, equipped with a storeroom and a possibility to isolate it with a dividing wall.