Urban integration

Installed on the obliqueness (the slope) of the alluvial cone of Vouvry, located in the historical center of the old village, two main buildings interact with the existing volumes.

The buildings seeking permeabilities of the interior, they open towards the four directions in order to search a clear view on the panorama of the surrounding mountains, composing the bucolic and intimate local atmosphere, with the endless landscape. 

The overlap of the apartments, every one different from the other, offers double and even triple orientations to the dwellings, searching singular typologies. 

The recognition of a singular materiality of existing constructions, results in the contemporary material reinterpretation, in the proportions of openings, in the traditional way of working... Thus the new volumes from those geometries generated from a heteroclite context, answer to buildings headed in small tiles, bringing its materiality tested during the time.

Each building has its contextual shape as a complementary approach and linked to the existing buildings.

Placed on the traces of a vernacular lot and on a surrounding environment densely built, the buildings benefit from these constraints by magnifying them. 

Energy and environmental quality

Economy of means: 
Use of the local companies (minimize the transports and help local businesses), 
Minimizing the excavations by Installing the buildings in different levels, following the slope.
Use of the local materials, from structure or facilities to the finishes. (local sources or Switzerland)

Economy of consumption:
Use of heat pumps in order to contribute to the production of the heating.
Use of a continuous building envelope.
Use of technical details allowing an optimization of the acoustic quality.

This measures guarantee an optimization of the energy consumption and high-level comfort of the building. 

Social:
The mix has been searched from the beginning of the project, with different sized apartments (from 1 room to 4 rooms) in the end of the operation, this desire of mixing has been granted with a division of 50% of the apartments sold and the other 50% of the apartments aimed to tenancy. Local people have bought 30% of the apartments and people within a radius of 30 km have acquired the other 50%. 

Innovation and architectural quality:

The reconnaissance of a Inherent materiality singular of the existing buildings, is translated by the contemporary reinterpretation of the materials, the proportion of the voids, traditional facilities… Thus the new volumes from those geometries generated from a heteroclite context, answer to buildings headed in small tiles, bringing its materiality tested during the time.

The use of the vernacular materials (tiles with a different treatment of faces) assembled as the contemporary technic (ventilated façade). The digitalisation has allowed printing a pattern applied to the façade in an abstract drawing of the symbol of Vouvry “la Vouivre”

The overlap of the apartments, every one different from the other, offers double and even triple orientations to the dwellings.
The typology of each apartment is related to its orientation and its context.

A common car park hosts all the vehicles, in order to release the exterior spaces to the pedestrians. 
The rooms are based on the basement, which uses the whole limits of the plot  

The volumes change in height with the increase or decrease of the number of floors. Enable the south orientations and the sightseeing to the landscape by an increase of the number of floors: the volume has been shaped by a densification logic, a maximum of square meters built to the South and to the East and a reduction of the volume to the North allowing attractive sales areas.