Golden Tower Apartments / Ignacio Prego Architectures
Golden Tower Apartments / Ignacio Prego Architectures
Text description provided by the architects. Our vision of this project considers a balanced evaluation of the program mix – Student residence / Family housing – in synergy with a singular urban proposal: a construction 50 meters in height.
In reflecting on the make-up of the vertical aspect of the volume in relation to the differentiated uses of the two programs, we decided to opt for the principle of superposition rather than one of juxtaposition. This proposal is based on the different time frames of use inherent in these two programs, and the distinct qualities arising from this consideration.
There are different time frames in the long term: the tenants of the family housing will reside here for long cycles, while students will reside there for much shorter cycles. And there are different time frames also over the short term of a single day: family homes have a much longer daily occupancy period than student residences, with the latter experiencing their accommodation as a kind of minimal urban capsule from which they project themselves into the rhythms offered by the Parisian metropolis.
Based on this analysis, the principle of superposition makes it possible to place the family dwellings above the urban rooftop level and project them towards the unobstructed and more distant views of the city. This also enables the social housing, with larger floor areas than the student rooms, to occupy all angles of the volume and to benefit from typologies with dual orientation. The student residence, inserted in the greater density of the lower stratum, benefits from a more direct appropriation of the active site and a more intense relationship with the urban space and lateral views.
This mechanism of differentiation finds balance in the overall morphology of the project, which offers an effective resolution of overlooks with the adjacent buildings by organizing a volume of inflected geometries that fluidly escapes frontal relationship and direct overlooks, and seeks generous illumination and more distant views.
As a result, this mechanism ascribes an urban sense and a force of purpose to the mixed-use character of the building. The height dialogues with the distant landscape, while the body is inscribed and immersed in the proximity of the context. A form of movement, reflecting the profound transformation currently underway in this new metropolitan hub.
It is also a solution that organises the two programmes compactly, developing them respectively over 8 and 9 levels each, in a logic of user-friendliness and optimised maintenance. The mixed-use character also relates to the transport infrastructure. Beyond a simple superposition, and pending further developments on the possible use of spaces designated ‘no-build’ located on either side of the project, the overall morphology already contributes to the creation of setbacks that avoid direct overhangs over the railway easements.
