The Rennes-based ALTA agency (Maxime Le Trionnaire and Gwenaël Le Chapelain) has delivered the Aviator, a 52-home (3,462 m2 GFA) program in Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande (Ille-et-Vilaine), between 2022 and 2024, for Espacil Accession + Espacil Habitat, the contracting authorities. The project is composed of two buildings linked by a planted slab. 

Located on former army industrial and storage sites in the Mermoz sector of the ZAC la Courrouze (mixed development zone) in the Rennes metropolitan area, the Aviator is a housing development completed by the requalification and redevelopment of the boulevard Jean Mermoz. This new gateway to the city gives pride of place to soft mobility(bicycles and pedestrians), directing traffic to the Saint-Jacques-Gaîté Multimodal Inter-change Hub (bus, metro and park-and-ride facilities), located just a few minutes’ walk away.

Along the boulevard, the buildings of the various blocks in this sector are laid out in a comb-like pattern, with the urban planners (Studio Paola Vigano) having designed regular sequences of alternating buildings and landscaped areas (valleys and planted slabs) to create north/south porosities. Each block is designed along the same pattern: two buildings perpendicular to the boulevard, linked by a planted slab above the semi-underground parking lot.

ALTA’s project is composed of two buildings whose skyline va- ries from GF+5 to GF+2 to create an urban signal on the boulevard Jean Mermoz and to insert beautiful terraces to the south that open onto the landscape. The planted slab overhanging the street unifies the composition and provides a green space for exchanges and meetings, enhanced by a large picnic table.

The homes are wide-open, with double or triple orientation. The loggias, carved into the building volume and located in the corners, are designed as additional rooms, protected from the nuisance of the street by a masonry window sill. On the south-facing side, where these nuisances are less of a concern, the housing units open out onto the distant landscape via stepped terraces.

The Aviator project offers a variety of housing types: compact T2 or T3 apartments on the street, souplexes with small gardens on the west facade, and homes with independent entrances and large terraces on the planted slab. All units are treated in the same way, regardless of how they are financed.

The concrete of the facades, the layout of the hollow joints and the recesses are
enhanced by a light grey stain. The wood- work and locksmithing warm up the overall effect with a brown hue, echoing the stone wall on the opposite side of the boulevard.

The halls, activity rooms and bicycle rooms, differentiated by large trapezoidal bays borrowing from the vocabulary of arcades, punctuate the first floor.
Based on a social rental loan (BRS) scheme, this program is exemplary in its social mix: 52 housing units, including 22 rental units, 5 controlled-access units, 9 free-access units and 16 units covered by the social rental loan scheme. With this in mind, the association Habitat et Humanisme Ille-et-Vilaine has fitted out 14 apartments and a third-living space in one of the Aviator’s two business units. These units can be rented/sublet for a limited period of time under a temporary occupancy agreement.

Finally, as the ZAC la Courrouze (Joint Development Zone) is committed to sustainable excellence, and to better anticipate future housing regulations, a series of measures integrated into the development of new housing has resulted in the certification of a performance level specific to the district: NF Habitat HQE Courrouze.

The Aviator, which is one of the first projects to be built in the Mermoz sector, is pushing the boundaries in terms of environ- mental quality, requiring all its operations to reach the «Excellent» level (9 stars), compared with the «Very High Performance» level (6 stars) for the rest of the ZAC.