This apartment block with a pleated facade of golden aluminium by French studio [BP] Architectures faces the Place de la Bastille, Paris.

When opened, shutters reveal pink, mauve and orange framed windows for the fifteen social housing apartments contained within.

A gallery occupies the fully-glazed ground floor, which is screened behind zig-zagging concrete columns.

Photography is by Sergio Grazia.

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The following details are from Plan01:

14 social housing + Gallery Jacques Henri Lartigues on Bastille Place, Paris

Haute Couture
Is there an architect who has not dreamed of designing a building for the Biscornet site, which lay abandoned for so long? Its location is truly spectacular: slightly set back from the Place de la Bastille, it lies where the rue de Lyon and the road running along the canal basin meet; on one side you have a perspective towards the Gare de Lyon, on the other a view of the Bassin de l'Arsenal.

Looking at the building that now stands here, one has to admit that the architectural response provided by BP fits like a made-to-measure suit: itís a hand-stitched design that oozes a very Parisian form of elegance.

Making best use of the trapezoid shape of the plot, the building abuts onto the neighbouring building then gradually tapers forward; it has a graceful, vertical outline. The side blocks are clad in golden aluminium panels whose distortions give the facades an angular relief that plays with the light.

When all the window shutters are closed, the continuity and unity of the material are entire; when the residents open them, the vivid colours of the windowframes appear, like an exuberant lining alternating flashes of pink, mauve and orange.

The pleated vertical metal panels on the facades continue upwards to form the ëhoodí of the roof, giving the design a strong sense of coherence.

The Lartigue Foundation gallery is on the ground floor, and this change of use facilitates interruption and differenciation: here, the metal stops. The cut is sharply done, and the hem, also pleated, turns inwards to line the inside surface. This contrast is underlined by transparency, and by a concrete structure whose zig-zag shape subtly connects the ground with the pleated surface above.

The building is highly responsive to changes in the light; the metallic character of the materials combined with its surface variations reinforces the interplay of contrasts and transforms perceptions of its colour. The aluminium facades can turn from mustard yellow to glittering gold in just a few seconds.

Although there are only about fifteen flats in the building, the loggias of the eight duplex apartments are behind glass Venetian blinds that form a coninuous, abstract vertical screen. This reflective filter running the entire height of the building is like a ship's prow. The random angles of the slits capture fragmented reflections, fleeting images of the constantly moving, ever-changing spectacle of our irreplaceable and historic Place de la Bastille.

Architects: [BP] Architectures
Jean Bocabeille and Ignacio Prego
members of the architects' collective Plan01

Projectís Team
BP ARCHITECTURES ñ architects
BECT ñ Ingeniering
Client: MinistËre de la Culture / SAGI – SNI

Program
14 social housing units + Gallery Jacques-Henri Lartigue (RDC et R-1)
Location: 75 rue de Lyon - 52 bd de la Bastille 75012 Paris
Delivery of the housings: March 2011
Delivery of the gallery: September 2011
Area: 1 609 sqm shon
Cost: 3.2 M ÄHT
Entreprises
FARC / GROS åUVRE + SECOND OEUVRE
SHMM / FACADES

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