n°19 - Nantes (FR) - E4

Town over town, or the freedom of constricted space

Monograph No.19
47 housing units and a crèche,
Rue Rieux/Rue Fourré, Nantes (FR)
Architects: DLW architects
Clients: La Nantaise d'Habitations, le C.H.U. of Nantes

The challenge for this site in Nantes was to link a hybrid inner suburb and an industrial site with little urban quality. The DLW team of architects, winners of the Europan 4 competition, have designed a large trapezoid block which integrates some of the existing buildings around a large interior public space. The outer façades are pierced in places to create openings between the street outside and the garden inside, and a
corner is truncated to create an urban square.
The ground floor of the building houses a crèche which brings life to the street and opens onto quiet play areas inside. The project centres on the coherence and continuity of voids. The narrow building is composed of through-apartments in a variety of forms, giving the impression that each unit is unique in its setting or layout.
This book covers the development of the project since it was first selected for a site in Athis Mons (France), before being transferred to Nantes following a planning study covering the whole quarter. It includes an article on this urban adventure by researcher Soline Nivet, along with presentations of the architects and the project managers, La Nantaise d’Habitation and Nantes hospital complex.