Concrete loggias overlook a courtyard at this social housing block in Paris, which French studios Francois Brugel Architectes Associes, H2o Architectes and Antoine Regnault Architecture have converted from offices.
Named Ilot Saint-Germain, the housing is located in two interconnected blocks previously owned by the Ministry of the Armed Forces in the city's seventh arrondissement.
The Ilot Saint-Germain social housing occupies former office blocks in Paris
To the south, a load-bearing stone building dating back to the 18th century faces the road, while to the north, an L-shaped, concrete-framed building from the 1970s hugs an internal courtyard.
Francois Brugel Architectes Associes, H2o Architectes and Antoine Regnault Architecture were tasked with transforming these former workspaces into 254 social homes, while adding a gymnasium and kindergarten for residents and the wider city. One of the blocks has been lined with concrete loggias
Looking to highlight and complement the qualities of the existing buildings, the studios retained and restored their structures, drawing on their palette of pale stone and concrete for the gymnasium and kindergarten.
"The important thing was to work with the existing features, using the qualities of the original buildings and making them visible," H2o Architectes' Jean-Jacques Hubert told Dezeen.
The use of concrete echoes the existing structures of the offices
"There is a real interest in thinking of the different ways in whic...