MARS ARCHITECTS

Walking in Paris, we sometimes catch a glimpse of its hidden side, when a partially opened porch unveils an unexpected richness, a calm and peaceful atmosphere, precious and vegetal, which gives a particular relish to Parisian heart of blocks.

This surprise, the poetry of these concealed and glimpsed urban spaces is at the heart of the project.

Thus, from the street, through the residence main entrance, we guess an unusual vegetal density, standing like an invitation. In opposition with the street, the inward courtyard unveils a garden evoking an undergrowth full of ferns, ground-cover plants, resinous trees and other tall trees, like a transition between two universes: the urban one and the private one.

At the end of a path which weaves through the undergrowth stands the project, a wooden building rigorously structured, evoking japanese temples, and renewing a wise modernity inspired by age-old techniques.

The balconies protect the shutters and the woodwork from bad weather, by keeping them set back.

The endings of structural elements which are confronted with the elements are protected with white paint, thus confering rythm to the facade.

Through this rythm, but also through the expression of the structure of the balconies, the choice to keep the assemblies visible and the sliding panels system, emerges an architectural style which is simple, strong, original, and totally in osmosis with the garden.

This symbiosis between the architecture and its landscape gives an ambiance whith a particular depth to this place, a serene privacy which manages to make us forget about the surrounding buildings, despite their proximity and the great scale difference.

At the foot of the building, a canopy seems to signal an entrance. It turns out to be a passage whose whiteness constrats with the wooded atmosphere of the garden.

This pathway goes through the project and leads to a second level of inwardness, even more secret, which changes our perception of the site, revealing a totally white courtyard with intimate dimensions, a space shared by all the inhabitants which serves the dwellings through footbridges, as balconies on the courtyard.

From this succession of ambiances emerges the quality of the dwellings. 

Going home is an interval, a fundamental point in the quality and in the positive perception of a home, a hinge point where the necessary detachment between the intimate and the outside world takes place.

source: MARS Architects