URBAN VALLEY
This is a renovation of an existing house in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, in the courtyard of a building surrounding a city block.
The existing building is a one-story building with one basement level, surrounded on four sides by seven-story buildings, and has a small courtyard that also serves as a traffic line from the street.
This deep, narrow and secluded location is a refuge from the hustle and bustle of the metropolis and is akin to living in the bottom of an urban valley.
The existing space has top lights and windows serving rich natural lights, but the courtyard, ground floor and basement floors are separated from each other, creating an uncomfortable living environment with stagnant air flow and dampness emanating from the basement stone walls.
In this project, the aim was to maintain an appropriate sense of distance between the functionally required spaces while at the same time ensuring a gradual sense of continuity, and creating a structure in which the lives of the individual family members living here overlap but are independent of each other.
The vertical flow lines that are used to connect the ground and basement floors are now located at both ends of the space, and two entrances to the ground floor and the courtyard are provided at each end to create a three-dimensional circulation system. The ground floor, which is continuous with the courtyard, becomes the living room as the center of a lively and active life full of light, while the basement space, where soft light pours down from overhead using the existing top light and atrium, becomes the bedroom as a place of tranquillity.
Each room and function is loosely connected, and the aim is to create an ‘urban valley floor’ where air, light and people constantly circulate and reflect the rich expression of the city.
>Japanese
都市の谷底に住まう
パリ7区、街区を囲う建物の中庭にある既存住宅の改修である。
既存建物は4周を7階建ての建物に囲まれた地下1層+地上1層の建物であり、道路からの動線を兼ねた小さな中庭を有している。
この深く狭い人知れず佇む場所は、大都会の喧騒から離れ、さながら都市の谷底に住まうようでもある。
既存の住宅はトップライトと窓を有しつつも、中庭、地上階、地下階とそれぞれの空間が分断され、空気の流れが停滞し地下石壁から発せられる湿気が充満するような住環境として快適ではない環境であった。
このプロジェクトでは機能的に求められたそれぞれの空間に適度な距離感を保ちつつも緩やかな連続性を担保し、ここに住まう家族個々人の生活が重なりつつも独立するような構成を目指した。
地上階と地下階を繋ぐ中央に位置していた縦動線を空間の両端に配し、地上階と中庭の入口を両端に2箇所設けることで立体的な回遊性を獲得している。中庭と連続した地上階は、光の溢れる賑やかでアクティブな生活の中心の場としてのリビングとなり、既存のトップライトや吹き抜けを利用して頭上から降り注ぐ柔らかな光が届く地下空間は静謐な場としての寝室となる。
それぞれの室と機能が緩やかに繋がり、絶えず空気や光や人が循環して豊かな表情を映し出す「都市の谷底」となることを目指す。
Year | 2022
Type | Private
Program | Residence, Renovation
Size | 83 m2
Status | Ongoing
Location | Paris, France
Collaborator | –
Design | Haruki NAKAYAMA, Yosuke TSUKAMOTO