CENON

Cenon has a typical suburban form of disparate housing blocks spread out over a flat territory, but on an early visit to the site, we found a beautiful umbrella pine tree growing there, and the idea of making a pine wood became the starting point of the project. The wood creates a specific environment to which the building form can relate and, when full-grown, the trees will help to create a pleasant distance between apartments, giving their inhabitants the feeling of being in their own park without abandoning a vital density.
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The apartments are unusually spacious, around 150 m², and unusually long, about 30 m. The building’s E-shape gives half of the apartments a triple orientation, with internal visual connections between facades. To the south, foldable glass walls open to loggias with thick rectangular railings. The undersides of the loggias and the railings are tinted with a gradation of bordeaux reds, creating an abstract linear pattern on the south facade. On the north facade, winter gardens are enclosed by vertical glass panels of varying transparency, a reference to French ateliers d'artiste (artist’s studios).
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On the lateral facades, which face the courtyards, the primary focus is the pleasure of colours and reflections. The interior of the window shutters are painted in white, yellow and orange, and the stainless steel cladding reflects the bright colours and the changing sunlight.
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The roof terrace is covered with vegetable gardens for each resident, where they can enjoy sunny afternoons, cultivating tomatoes and cucumbers while looking out over the pine wood below.

Type: Invited competition

Location: Cenon, France

Brief: Housing (38 rental apartments), commerce, parking

Sustainability standard: RT 2005–20%

Client: Foncière Logement

Developer: ING Real Estate Development

Area: 6,852 m²

Phase / Status: Built

Architects: Habiter Autrement (lead architect) / Ateliers Jean Nouvel

Mia Hägg, Sandrine Forais / Jean Nouvel

Team:

Project managers: Sandrine Forais, Elise Camus

Architectural consultant: Jean-Jacques Raynaud

Team members: Mathilde Jauvin, Aimée Lau, Félix Medina, Louis Mangin, Nicolas Métro, Marcel Züger

Competition team members: Pawel Krzeminski, Lina Lagerström, Kasia Jackowska, Noélie Sénéclauze

Landscape (AJN): Ewen Le Rouic, Irène Djao Rakitine, Céline Aubernias

Graphics: Natalie Saccudefranchi

Consultants:

Sustainability (HQE): Franck Boutté, Transsolar (competition)

Structure: Khephren Ingénierie

Facades: DVVD

MEP: LBE fluides

Cost consultant: Georges Ventre

Technical inspection: Socotec