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