Palimpseste
« Reconciling building tradition and modern living in semi-collective housing »
Weaving together the threads of past and present to create a contemporary urban landscape that celebrates the richness of the local heritage.
Set in Meyzieu, within a prospective 2050 masterplan, Palimpseste responds to the disjointed morphology of a peri-urban commuter town now dominated by the car. Faced with this lack of typological and visual coherence, the challenge was to propose a "revisited hamlet" able to honour the region's building heritage while anchoring it firmly in the present.
Conceived as an ordered labyrinth, the project explores semi-collective housing to offer a subtle balance between privacy and community life. The transition between public and private space is paced by careful work on thresholds. At the heart of this bioclimatic design, rammed earth — the vernacular technique of compacted raw earth — becomes the material backbone of the whole. More than a mere dozen dwellings, Palimpseste embodies a French vision of critical regionalism: a durable, geo-sourced architecture that weaves together the threads of past and present to offer its inhabitants a calmed urban landscape, deeply rooted in the richness of its territory.
II.01
Morphogenesis — step 1
The starting idea was a central street, betting on interiority and sociability between residents.
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Morphogenesis — step 2
To create movement and irregularity and break with the monotony of a conventional housing development, the street widens and narrows along its length, producing varied urban effects.
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Morphogenesis — step 3
The plot is extended into a previously unused residual space to create intimate gardens. Openings are cut through the residential fabric to form passages toward the planted swale running alongside the hamlet.
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Morphogenesis — step 4
Finally, the varied heights of the housing units and the geometry of the roofs are used to reinforce the singularity of each dwelling. The thresholds are accentuated by slightly raising the block, strengthening the privacy of the place.
II.05
Site plan and schedule of areas
Inspired by the organic growth of a hamlet, the dwellings are arranged around an inner courtyard that narrows toward the plot's two branches. One branch creates a street of more tightly packed houses, while the other leads to the communal gardens at the rear of the plot, punctuated by open shelters offering shade. The irregular sizing allows a mix of typologies and storey counts for each unit, reinforcing the hamlet's organic effect.
III.01
Exploded constructive axonometric
This constructive axonometric clarifies the building principles chosen for the project. The structure combines rammed-earth walls with a timber frame, to maximise the use of bio-sourced materials. Removable timber louvres regulate solar gain in front of the large glazed bays edged in zinc, which answers the mineral materiality found on the roof.
III.02
Perspective plan — set at 12:00
One of the project's strong ideas was to introduce extensions at the interface between several dwellings, drawing on the concept Alejandro Aravena deployed in his Half a Good House project. The aim is more flexible dwellings, with the possibility of gaining an extra room when the need arises — strengthening, at the same time, coexistence with one's neighbours.
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Collage from the gardens at the rear of the plot
This collage shows the hamlet seen from the gardens at the rear of the plot — a hamlet whose organic, resolutely human character is embodied in the tangle of uneven roofs and the harmonious balance of the housing units' masses.
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Perspective section through two housing units
This perspective section shows how several housing units of different typologies are arranged. The units are joined at their upper part by an extension whose raised position frees a passage from the heart of the hamlet toward the swale.
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Perspective section through the dwellings on the planted-swale side
The transitions are carefully considered: steps, thresholds and low walls gradually pace the passage from public to private. The modular timber-frame extensions slot in between the houses, offering shared spaces that adapt to the residents' way of life and evolve over time.