Full steam ahead
Paris Affordable Housing Challenge
Design team: Collectif REV.L
Full steam ahead explores the habitability of a place in mutation, in partial dormancy and with multiple overlaying uses: “La Petite Ceinture de Paris” (the small belt of Paris), an intramuros railway.
The project proposes a typology that includes the key elements for a quality lifestyle that is affordable and firmly rooted in Paris. The project focuses on a modular system and progressively extensible dwellings. These are structured to maximize openings and relationships with the railways and the promenade. The co-living ground floor livens up the daily life of the inhabitants and railway strollers. The train becomes a punctual animation element that tints life in this habitat. As milestones in this railway journey, they also contribute to the urban accessibility of the promenade and the quality of the linear landscape of “La Petite Ceinture”.
The use of public land (SNCF, French national railway company), the dissociation of building property and land rights managed by a solidarity land organization, and industrial logistics all contribute to affordable and quality construction. Completely reversible, the project does not hinder any possible way into the future of the “La Petite Ceinture, whether it is more railway or more inhabited. More broadly, the project proposes a response to the Parisian challenges of affordable housing: a densely built context, where space is a rare and speculative asset. A context that pushes young families, and less fortunate to the suburbs.
Dreaming of the future of “La Petite Ceinture” and addressing the challenges of Parisian affordable housing : here is the journey we propose.
Railway Milestones
“La Petite Ceinture” is a space that combines a double affectation between industrial space and a quality daily living environment. The project provides a way to meet the demand for affordable housing while contributing to the revitalization of the “small belt” as an urban promenade, in a unique way. Like landmarks on the promenade, they create links between the surrounding urban area and the promenade itself. The variety of topographical and urban situations makes each site unique and creates different implantation opportunities.
Modularity offers benefits such as a reduction in cost due to more rationalization, interoperability and faster construction. Since land belonging to the SCNF, residents must invest only the price of the modules, which is cheaper. To support changing household needs, expandability makes it possible to extend the area of the dwelling. The modular system offers the opportunity of having a unit ranging from a studio of 33 sq. m to a two-storey unit of 148.5 sq. m.
The milestone of a vision
“La Petite Ceinture” represents a strategic location to meet the needs of public uses for the future of Paris: whether they are related to the promenade, railway transportation or social housing. This multiplicity of overlaying uses generates new lifestyles for the city of tomorrow.
The habitable milestones propose to integrate affordable housing into this vision, as an activator of this unique place that “la petite ceinture. The train also plays a central role in the vitality of this inhabited promenade and gives it a unique quality and identity. This identity is a bearer of historical symbols of flourishing development in the past, but also of a new history to be reinvented around this railway belt.
The habitable milestones propose to integrate affordable housing into this vision, as an activator of this unique place that “la petite ceinture. The train also plays a central role in the vitality of this inhabited promenade and gives it a unique quality and identity. This identity is a bearer of historical symbols of flourishing development in the past, but also of a new history to be reinvented around this railway belt.
Competition organizer: https://beebreeders.com/architecturecompetitions/parischallenge/
Honorable mention: https://beebreeders.com/pahc-hon-3-interview
