93 Petit – Paris, France
Title
93 Petit – Paris, France
Website Source
Designed by
STUDIO RAZAVI + PARTNERS
Image Credit
Schnepp Renou
Project Description
Regardless of their size, all buildings in urban contexts contribute to the greater morphology
that ultimately defines a city. The larger the project however, the more the architect becomes
under pressure to sensibly balance land use ratio and design. Although this may again evolve in
the future, the most current and commonly accepted approach to sustainable urban design is
a degree densification in and near cities, allowing a greater number of people to rely on public
transport, live closer to their work and city centers, rely on local businesses to ultimately
create vibrant neighborhoods.
What we aimed for in this project was to design a building that could respond to the above
paradigm but also create – despite its very large site footprint – a clear morphological
relationship with the adjacent urban fabric by means of massing, inner courtyards, material
selection, window opening sequence and size.
This building sits on a very large rectangular site with the shortest side facing the street. This
specific criteria, combined with the necessity to maximize square footage
helped us create a typology that responded not only to zoning restrictions but also created a
series of differentiated buildings envelopes which help break down the overall scale.
A total of four building blocks make up the project. The longest runs North-South to allow
maximum sunlight exposure to the West, three remaining blocks run parallel to
the street, opening both to North and South sides. The farther the building in the site, the
shorter it is. Terraces set the buildings back to the East side, offering a more gentle scale to
neighboring buildings.
Brick was the material of choice in order to introduce yet another dimension and scale to our
design and help, via the tactile properties of the material, create a more intimate scale and
vibrant facades.
