The sky above Asnières-sur-Seine

Asnières-sur-Seine, Paris

AELhousing
The sky above Asnières-sur-Seine
Asnières-sur-Seine, Paris (France)
2013-2016

International Award “Gran Prix” Casalgrande Padana, winner in the “Façades” category (2019)
Mipim Awards, finalist in the “best residential project” category (2017)

program: Construction of 183 housing units: 144 housing units with access to ownership and 39 social housing units, a 360 sqm shop and 192 parking spaces
total area: 10 518 m2
floor area: 9 470 m2
client: SCI Asnières Seine AB represented by COFFIM, Eiffage Immobilier IDF
Alfonso Femia / Atelier(s) Alfonso Femia with
structural engineering: Eiffage Construction
services engineering: I.D. BATI
environmental engineering: Eiffage Immobilier IDF
economy control office: Tohier
contractor: Eiffage Construction IDF
energy levels and certification: The complex is certified “NF Logement Démarche HQE version 8.1”
. Building C: certification “Habitat e Environnement Millésimé” RT 2012 10% and 01/2013
photos : ©L.Boegly
“Unity, urban rhythm, classic vertical stratification, single material integrating differences capable of anticipating the gentle metamorphosis towards the sky, where the ancestors of the cities can be found, observing us, looking towards the horizon, towards the sky.” AF
The project site is surrounded by strong and structuring elements of the urban landscape: the nearby Seine, the RER C lines connecting Paris to Pontoise and the arrival of a future Grand Paris station. The project is therefore inserted at the end and at the beginning of an important urban axis on the scale of the city.
How can this arrangement be managed? How can the project be presented towards Grésillons Avenue and the train station, giving that this area represents a structural interface from a functional point of view? How can this area expand, in addition to the space already provided, and turn into a real gateway to the neighbourhood?

The project develops through the analysis of potentials: the atmosphere, the light of the landscape, the environmental demands and the formal game consisting of a series of cutouts, openings, slides that define the three bodies of the building.
The city is placed in continuous dialogue with the internal park creating a built / landscape rhythm. The architectural writing of the project is based on this notion of rhythm (openings, materials, treatment of the upper floors): it promotes within a common grammar, the diversity of the urban landscape created between city and nature.
The soul of the project is also the reaffirmation of the decor through ceramics and ornamentation represented by six angels. This reaffirmation requires thinking of thinking the building as a house, a place to live and not just a series of requirements to be met.
Unity, urban rhythm, classic vertical stratification, single material integrating differences capable of anticipating the gentle metamorphosis towards the sky, where the ancestors of the cities can be found, observing us, looking towards the horizon, towards the sky.

• PROJECT VIDEOS:
> Right to matter – Cornici d’autore, Asnières-sur-seine
> The Sky above Asnières-sur-seine