The “fifth façade”

In the heart of the Cité Jardin district, the town of Plessis-Robinson desired a European-style housing development: a residential building entirely in the spirit of the historic architecture of the Belle Époque.

The European style in France

Not far from the centre of Paris, in the municipality of Plessis-Robinson, a residential complex has been created that plays with European style. Modern living in historic architecture was the goal set by the municipality. This task was entrusted to the architect Manuel Silva and his office SUPD’AD. For the project, he found a plot of land containing a hole about six metres deep that he integrated into his plans right from the start.

„The roof tiles had to be perfectly aligned from one façade to the other, paying particular attention to the skylights." - Manuel Silva, SUPD’AD

Back to the golden age

Today, the pit has been transformed into a large central pond. Around it, Silva arranged twelve residential buildings that contain a total of 502 flats, including 38 social housing units. On the street side, the architect followed the client’s wishes and planned a sequence of façades visually inspired by the style of European capitals.

They draw on the canals of Amsterdam, are inspired by the Grand-Place in Brussels and reference the neoclassicism of Rome and the Praça do Comércio in Lisbon. They wanted the whole development to feel like a visit to the Belle Époque, a nostalgic favourite particularly in France. During this golden age, lasting from 1870 to the First World War, historicism mingled with art nouveau and industrialisation merged with the romantic. The period was the clear inspiration for this housing project.

Harmony on the fifth façade

Manuel Silva defines the roof as the fifth façade of a building and believes it deserves to be finished in the same high quality as the vertical surfaces. He chose the terracotta tile Koramic Vauban 2 Droite, which he presented on sample panels. “The fact that the client valued quality, they immediately agreed with the choice of terracotta”, says Silva. Equipped with numerous skylights, bay windows and dormers, the roof presents a visual variety that is unified by the choice of material.

It was certainly a technical challenge to cover the many projections and cut-outs seamlessly and attractively, but this hurdle was also overcome. “The Koramic Vauban 2 Droite roof tiles had to be perfectly aligned from one façade to the other, paying particular attention to the skylights.” The architect chose three shades of red, brown and slate, which provide orientation and unity on the roof and cover a total of around 7000 m². Although the roof tiles tie the development together, the different colours give each building its own character.