Rue de l'Eglise Dwellings
Montreuil-sous-Bois, France, 2009
This program is part of Alvaro Siza’s urban development project for rehabilitating the town center of Montreuil-sous-Bois.
The Rue de l’Église tract, located at the edge of the sector, has historical significance. As the old core of urban development, various types of structures have been built there over the centuries:
village buildings on the street itself, blue-collar housing to the south, and 1970s constructions to the north. The composite system also conjures up the network of walls formerly used for espaliered peach trees that gave the parcel its structure.
The twenty-five dwellings are part of three programs:
. A three-and four-storey apartment building on the street,
. A series of intermediate two-storey dwellings along a site formerly occupied by an espalier wall,
. A group of five homes bordering a wall, following existing lines, and bearing a relationship to adjacent preexisting units.
The program’s complex and varied typological offering, reflecting the site’s history, brings urban layout and modes of habitation into meaningful.