lacaton & vassal _ horticultural social housing

This project for 14 single-family houses is part of an operation for 61 dwellings created by five teams of architects in the extended space of a housing estate in Mulhouse. The aim is to produce quality houses that are, for the same price, considerably larger than the standardized housing usually met with.

To begin with, the creating of a structure and a cheap and effective simple envelope allows to define, on the loft principle, a maximum surface area and volume with contrasting, complementary and surprising spatial qualities. On the ground floor a post/beam structure in concrete supports a platform at a height of 3 m, upon which horticultural greenhouses are fixed. The frame is in galvanized steel, the walls in transparent polycarbonate. Part of the greenhouse is isolated and heated. The other part constitutes a winter gardne, largely ventilated via the roof and facade. A horizontal sunshade unfurls inside the greenhouse.

The greenhouse principle, with its automated climate-control devices, has enabled solutions to the bioclimate to be developped.


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