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Solaris Apartments

This is a project by Manuelle Gautrand and it is located at Rennes, France. There are fourteen images for Solaris Apartments.

: © Philippe Ruault

Project images

Designer's statement

This project is developed on behalf of a private developer. This one, aided by the Town of Rennes, wanted to build housing merely exemplary, as “green building”, so as to be potentially reproducible. There are not to be experimental.

So I had to integrate ecological criteria for green collective housing:

Incorporation of the landscape,
The environmental passivity of the building (minimization of energy, water and other forms of consumption)
Flexibility of use...

The 110 housing are divided into three linear buildings, facing north-south, to make the most of long fully south-facing façades. Between each building there is a dense and deciduous strip of vegetation, shady in summer and permeable in winter. So that the façades can be on the south facing very permeable to the sun, and very transparent.

The south façades and the roof are made to catch most of the warmth of the sun. All the apartments are of the through type, and all the warmth captured on the south side can be channeled through to the north-facing rooms.

To the south, the solar capture is achieved by means of a very simple device: A cubic glass veranda, closed in winter and opened in summer. All the glass cubes are attached in a irregular way to each apartment, at an angle, or embedded. The relation between the veranda and the apartment is always different, offering many typological configurations and new uses.

The windows along this façade run all around the glass cubes, and seem to be attached to the cube like petals around the middle of a flower.

I tried to use in this project the qualities of the ecological materials, to create advantages to the apartments, in terms of living, comfort and pleasure.

Project details

Location: Rue des Longs Prés, Rennes - France
Client: Espacil
Architect: Manuelle Gautrand
Engineers: I.2.C.
Consultants: Tribu (green building)
Figures: 100 flats, 9.000 m², 10 M € tax inc.
Dates: schematic design: 2001, design development: 2002-2003, construction: 2004-2006
Photos: Philippe Ruault