In Paris, street corners are extremely important for urban and architectural spaces. This weathering steel triangle building at the intersection of la Porte d’Ivry and Charles-Régaud is an elderly apartment. The
weathering steel building also provides day care for patients afflicted with Alzheimer's disease.
The architect hopes to create a cocoon-like safe environment to provide a shelter for these long-displaced seniors. This weathering steel building has an open living space, a restaurant with a huge terrace, floor-to-ceiling glass framed with beautiful scenery, and a traffic space bathed in natural sunlight. They let them completely relax, return to community life and learn to share. At the same time, single bedrooms with exclusive wooden balconies and glass sliding doors provide privacy and solitude, allowing them to slowly forget the brutal street life that tortured them in the past.
The combination of rust-colored concrete and corten steel plate makes this weathering steel building stand out in the city. The sculptural weathering steel building volume is carved and spliced out according to its function or its urban environment. The Alzheimer's Center is filled with a warm and comfortable atmosphere, allowing patients and their families to take off guard and integrate into each other's life.
Warm colors and bright natural light are indispensable. The open walkway connects the interior space with the back of the weathering steel building to relax the mind and body of the healing garden. Inside the weathering steel building, the huge living space allows everyone in it to dine, rest and sing together.
The layer of the weathering steel building conforms to the texture of the city streets, forming a huge triangle, and then gradually fluctuates as the height increases, forming the main volume. On the west side, the volume of this weathering steel building is slightly inscribed, forming an angle with the street, making the
weather-resistant steel building echo the volume of the adjacent HBM affordable residential community. The recessed spaces extending inward are small balconies in the residential unit that overlook the city. The sharp corners on the street corners make it extremely present.
On the west side of the weathering steel building, there are layers of landscaped terraces and a sky garden. The rough texture of the building materials and the blue sky and sunlight reflected on the floor-to-ceiling windows create a strong contrast, which is very visually striking. The rust-colored weathering steel building guards the corner of the Sancha intersection like the bow of the same steamer.
