Metal balconies enhance outdoor living space
A new public housing complex in a southwestern France community may help pave the way to further rehabilitating what was once a working-class neighbourhood.
Bordeaux, France-based More Architecture and Poggi Architecture have joined forces to create White Clouds, a 1,886-squaremetre setup which provides 30 apartments for the town of Saintes.
Calling themselves Poggi + More, the architects have pooled their expertise and resources “to maximize outdoor space through a series of gridded metal balconies.
“The building is positioned in such a way as to respect the site’s quality, rather than merely colonize the given space,” the architects told design magazine Dezeen.com.
“The little boxes project outward, embracing the most interesting vistas.”
Caged balconies, the architect collective added, are “grafted” onto every side of the block, ensuring there is no primary facade. Their size and placement corresponds with the need of each apartment, which are contained within three white, corrugated metal blocks.
“Exit conventional balconies, terraces and loggias with their separating walls and shields of varying transparency, used to hide unsightly objects or provide a modicum of intimacy,” said the architects. “In this design, the outside spaces are extremely secluded and provide genuine additional spaces, equipped with utility rooms for drying, washing or storing bulky objects, just like garden sheds,” they continued.
“The apartments flow out into these exterior facilities, thereby offering ample extra space.”
The blocks of the public-housing unit are set partially into the slope of the landscape, bound on either sides by existing footpaths, houses, and roads. No word on any rental vacancies or costs of the units.