The Python-Duvernois district, created in 1953, is characterized by its large Modernist apartment buildings with stone-clad facades, by its outdoor sports areas, but also by a certain isolation and by the major infrastructural nuisances of the périphérique highway.
Our project constitutes here a point of articulation of the new urban plan, on a plot with a strong declivity and a complexe shape due to the intersections of the streets. The simplification of the forms, or rather the geometric clarification of these forms is then one of the first challenges of the project.
The project is also in line with the new bioclimatic challenges of the Ville de Paris, trying to respond to climate change where extreme weather events (heat waves, cold waves) follow one another. Thus, the environmental performance of the building, its thermal resilience, and the quality of the exterior spaces fully define its architecture.

A two-storey base built into the topography is aligned with the three roads that border the plot. In the center, a sloping garden connects the new Henri Duvernois street and the corner of the two lanes on the East side, at which a mineral, public square, common to the two health facilities, is created. To the south of the parcel, we propose an eight-story building, following a hexagonal plan; to the north, a nine-story building, following a diamond plan. Along the new Henri Duvernois street, the high facades are assertive, with marked angles and large windows, which open towards the park and the landscape.

The morphological approach adopted allows for the improvement of many other aspects. Thus, the energy performance is increased by the compactness and efficiency of the thermal envelope. The ratio between living/working area and facade area, modulated between heat loss and solar gain, is optimized by these geometries. The format of the openings also guarantees airtightness and thermal performance. Finally, the reduction of the built surface allows for the maximization of real soil on the plot, in order to improve rainwater management and limit the urban heat island.

As a Parisian tradition, the structure of the buildings is made of solid stone - some of which reused - complemented by an internal wooden structure and biosourced wood fiber insulation.
Solid stone, in this case Lutetian limestone, is a material with a high thermal capacity (c=840 J/kg.K). In this sense, it has an important potential for the interior comfort of housing, summer and winter, participating in the thermal inertia.
From this material, we develop two thermal and constructive strategies: the south building with a massive stone facade, insulated from the inside; the north building with interior façade wall, following the principle of thermal storage wall or Trombe wall, behind an efficient glass curtain facade. Particularly in the latter case, the inertia of the stone substantially reduces internal thermal fluctuations.

Despite two different architectural expressions, the two buildings emerge from the same constructive and thermal reflection, differentiated by their function and location on the plot.

Architects : Nicolas Dorval-Bory, Oglo
Team : Hugo Taillardat, Bruno Todeschini
Client : SEMAPA, RIVP
Location : Paris, ZAC Python-Duvernois
Area : 7760 m²
Year : 2022