Collective Housing on Shared Garden, Mantes-la-Ville
Lot G3, ZAC Université Gare
Lot G3 is located within the ZAC Université Gare in Mantes-la-Ville. Addressed on Avenue de la Grande Halle, a key street in the urban development project, the plot will eventually benefit from close proximity to the neighborhood’s amenities. To ensure future residents enjoy a pleasant living environment, the program is divided into eight blocks, with architects ANMA and AKA responsible for five and three buildings, respectively.
The urban planning of the block is based on two main principles: a dense yet permeable built perimeter and a large open, planted core. The altitudes of the eight buildings vary, sometimes high, sometimes low. This variation not only breaks up the bulk of the building mass but also helps integrate the project into its context, where offices, single-family homes, and small and large collective housing will soon form a bridge between the rehabilitated Sulzer Hall and the train station.
The program includes 231 housing units, 124 of which are for private ownership and 107 for social rental. AKA designs and builds 79 units, with 38 social (plot B) and 41 private (plot GH).
Commercial spaces complete the project, with their location along Avenue de la Grande Halle reinforcing the integration of the project within the new neighborhood.
A strong economic constraint led AKA to design a simple yet elegant architecture based on volumetric compactness, simplicity in implementing prefabricated elements, and a modular design created through the window frames.
Intended for social rental, Building B is rational and compact. The ground floor is raised above street level, using a semi-underground parking layout.
On each floor, the unit types are organized to optimize views, with the units at the ends of the block benefiting from triple orientations. All units have a day/night layout and at least one private outdoor space, following this principle: a loggia facing the street and a balcony or terrace facing the inner courtyard. Both the street-facing and inner-facing facades are covered in a copper-colored stain, revealing the texture of the material. The beveling of the window frames highlights the thickness of this stained skin, animated by deep loggias. Painted facades facing the garden are of the same hue as the stain but are more lively due to the numerous balconies. A roof with three pitched sections finishes the design with dynamism, with the edge detail adding an extra sense of lightness.
Buildings G and H were designed as part of a single construction, intended for homeownership housing.
A true flagship, Building G rises up to R+4, followed by Building H, whose progressive terracing ensures a smooth transition to the gap and the adjacent building. Their elongated profile, topped with pitched roofs, echoes the design of the Sulzer Hall. A projection at the floor levels emphasizes the horizontality of the volume, contrasted by the verticality created by the stacked loggias. The ribbing of the loggia ceilings gives a sense of hollowed mass. This pattern continues along the continuous balconies on the gable, creating a feeling of suspension. Here, the window frames have an inward design, with the refined lintels giving them a more slender appearance.
This time, the largest unit types are positioned transversely at the heart of the construction, with the corner units, which have dual orientations, reserved for the medium-sized units.
In homage to the tonalities of the hall before its rehabilitation, a sand-colored stain lightly covers the concrete facades facing the street, enhanced by warm gray metalwork. The rear façade is designed in continuity, but with the distinction that it is painted rather than stained.
