The importance of form. Residential Timber Tower by Moreau Kusunoki Architectes
16/10/2023.
[Paris] France
metalocus, ANTONIO CORREDERA, JORGE MARTINEZ
metalocus, ANTONIO CORREDERA, JORGE MARTINEZ
Project description by Moreau Kusunoki Architectes
The design of the 50 meters high timber tower began from a deep understanding of the given site and its designation as a new residential center at the southeastern end of Paris. At the intersection of multiple flows, networks, and scales, the project balances between the monumental and the domestic.
The grid, legible on the facade, comes from the idea of the inhabited wall and it is used as a filter to keep the growing, densely built urban environment at a distance. The design of the frame and its proportions derive as much from a structural necessity, as from the will to emphasize the verticality of the building. Giving longer proportions to the facade allows it to measure up against the great heights that surround it and participate fully in this monumental landscape. In contrast to this massive and introverted inhabited wall, there is the transparent base, a public space that aspires to be part of the city and opens onto it.
The attention given to the materiality in charred and pre-weathered wood can also be found in the care given to the layout of the residential units. All have a private exterior space, through which a discrete and respectful link is woven between interior and exterior, nature and city, private and public, towards the budding neighborhood and its inhabitants.
Moreau Kusunoki Architectes. Architecture studio founded by Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki, in Paris in 2011. Kusunoki, who earned her degree from the Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo, began her career in the studio of Shigeru Ban. Moreau, who trained at the Ecole Nationale d’Architecture de Belleville in Paris, worked in SANAA and Kengo Kuma studios. In 2008, Moreau and Kusunoki left Tokyo together, so Moreau could open Kengo Kuma’s office in France. Notable projects undertaken by Moreau Kusunoki Architectes include the Théâtre de Beauvaisis in Beauvais, the House of Cultures and Memories in Cayenne, the Polytechnic School of Engineering in Bourget-du-Lac, and the plaza for the Paris District Court (designed by Renzo Piano) at the Porte de Clichy.