Building social housing in beautiful neighborhoods is not necessarily expensive. Proof of this is given by the work in progress at 12, rue Jean Bart (VIe).
On a very small plot of 138 m2 of land, the Real Estate Agency of the city of Paris (RIVP, one of the three social landlords of the city of Paris) is in the process of building a seven-storey building which will have six 64 m2 apartments and two studios next September. A stone’s throw from the Luxembourg Gardens, where the price per m2 fluctuates between 15,000 and 20,000 euros, the invoice for this site amounts to 2 million euros. A very controlled budget, given the constraints of the site and the quality requirement of the lessor who bought the land from the City.
A building that blends into the landscape
Transferred to rue Bonaparte, the police station which formerly occupied the small one-storey building located on this land, was razed two years ago. “The most complex was the demolition of this horrible judicial police station stuffed with asbestos”, recalls Jean-Pierre Lecoq (LR), mayor of the 6th district who welcomes “this beautiful project”.
The architect Jean-Christophe Quinton, who won the competition, designed, in his own words, “a building of character, timeless and which blends into the landscape of the street”. Elegant and light, this building, whose facade covered with Vassens stones (quarry 80 km from Paris) carved in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), is energized by three Art Deco curves, blends harmoniously with the very beautiful adjoining building, built in 1930 by Jean Boucher and Léon Barriquand.
23.6% of social housing in Paris
“The objective is to participate in the destigmatization of social housing by using elements of Parisian architecture in a contemporary style to weave an urban continuity”, affirms Jean-Christophe Quinton who is also director of the school of architecture of Versailles (Yvelines). Judging by the large windows, the interior volumes, the balconies that punctuate the last three floors, the staircase bathed in light thanks to the glass tiles very popular in the 1950s …, the achievement promises to be up to the standards. ambitions. Nec plus ultra, the crossing plateau of the 7th floor decorated on one side with a view of the towers of Saint-Sulpice and on the other, on the Montparnasse tower!
While recalling that in twenty years, “the rate of social housing in Paris has fallen from 13% to 23.6% including operations in progress, or 110,000 apartments financed”, Ian Brossat (PC), deputy in charge of housing and emergency accommodation, says it loud and clear: “Our wish is not to concentrate social housing on the outskirts of Paris, in the north-east of the capital, otherwise, we are creating ghettos!” So, in the 6th arrondissement where land is expensive and where we also need to house employees who work here, we are progressing through small operations like this one. All the more so since construction costs are not higher in the 6th century than in the 18th century ”.
–
