11 Dwellings / La Nouvelle Agence

Architects: La Nouvelle Agence
Location: Sainte-Eulalie, France
Architect In Charge: Aït‐Mehdi Samira & Latizeau Sylvain
Area: 1,048 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Courtesy of La Nouvelle Agence

Engineering: CETAB Ingenierie
Client: AQUITANIS
Cost: 1,120,000 €/ht

From the architect. The village of Sainte-Eulalie sits about twenty kilometers from Bordeaux. The site is at the edge of the rural town’s center. On the site, the corner building is rehabilitated, and ten new apartments are created on the remainder of the plot. Taken together, the individual dwellings define a housing block, larger than the original mansion, which frames a communal courtyard in the center. The proposal is careful to offer the best exposure for each building, and the highest quality of space for each apartment, as well as the collective spaces between dwellings.

The party is arranged into three distinct sections, similar to the layouts of the surrounding wineries. The idea is simply to create a sense of one large house, rather than many small houses on individual properties. The facades towards the village are realized with a on site cast and washed concrete, reminding of the local stone used in existing buildings.

The result is an arrangement which is familiar as well as private, a mixture of old and new, where personal and collective interests merge.