Social-housing units and offices in «Le Marais»

Reconstruction and restructuring of social-housing units and offices in Le Marais At just a stone’s throw from the Centre Pompidou, 25 rue Michel le Comte is a building complex located within the perimeter of the Plan to Protect and Restore the Marais (PSMV). It dates from the 17th to the 20th centuries, and mixed private residences, workshops, and artist studios. It is a beautiful illustration of how the city has been built across the centuries through such subsequent additions.

In addition to the rehabilitation prescribed by the program, Atelier du Pont has proposed to go on this «adventure» by reconstructing a new building within the block that reflects the current context. Having a worksite on an occupied site demands considerable dexterity, strong coordination, and the most heartfelt sense of commitment.

The project illustrates the desire to go past the Marais’“museum” image and to promote mixed usage with ambitions that live up to the site’s expectations. Energy performance will be improved to respect the City of Paris’ Climate Plan, the number of social-housing units will be increased, and actual businesses will be preserved in the Marais area.

Intervening at a heritage site is an extraordinary adventure and singular exercise that plays with the apparent contradictions invoked through this process: audacity and humility, as well as respect and imagination. What is at stake is not simply a rehabilitation, rather a reactivation that continues to write history and anticipate the future.

Program: Major restructuring, demolition and reconstruction of an occupied site to create 29 social-housing units and offices for creative professionals
Adress: 25 rue Michel le Comte, Paris 3rd – France (Marais area)
surface: 4,500 m2 (net)
(housing 2,600 m2 – offices 1,900 m2)
cost: €9,300,000 (pre-tax)

Timetable: Phase 1 completed in march 2014 (demolition, reconstruction and restructuring – 10 housing units and offices) – Phase 2 july 2015 (restructuring – 19 housing units and offices)