figure 1.1: building model

introduc!on 2

Introduc!on

Bu"alo Residence consists of 466 rooms, distributed around 5 dif-ferent spaces.

Residence Bu"alo reflects and projects the Montrouge districts’ classical and memorable quali!es. It is a residen!al complex with a character of monumentality.

The Government launched a major campaign to build social hous-ing from 1954. Residence Bu"alo was one of the first opera!ons ins!gated by the Comptoir Na!onal Housing Corpora!on (NLC) (the social housing campaign).

The residence was named a#er the Bu"alo Stadium, famous and popular before the Second World War.

The residence covers 38,000 square meters of land. It is one of the most complex buildings Fernand Pouillon has de-signed, both architecturally and from the point of view of available space of land.

History

The State policies set out to solve the problem of housing short-ages in the context of post-war reconstruc!on and the succeeding phase of unprecedented demographic growth (the baby boom, the massive rural exodus, and then at the start of the 1960s; the rein-tegra!on of two million people from Algeria). All these issues were ini!ally expressed in the building of large collec!ve structures, be-tween 1950 and 1970. The marked preference from this period, on for the acquisi!on of property, for individual housing; the rejec!on of the large collec!ve groupings by the middle classes, and modifica!on in family struc-tures, inspired the first waves of the building of individual housing estates. The mo!va!ons which were o"ered as reasons for moving ahead are related much more to the condi!ons of housing (surface space, cost, the desire to change from ren!ng to property owner-ship, and from the collec!ve to the individual), than to a search for the advantages of a rural environment.

Architect Fernand Pouillon

The architect and urban planner Fernand Pouillon, born 14 May 1912 in Cancon (Lot-et-Garonne) and died at the castle of Belcastel (Aveyron) on 24 July 1986. Fernand Pouillon was one of the great builders of the years of the reconstruc!on a#er World War II in France. Much of his abundant work consists of housing; He was an innova!ve architect, both in his choice of construc!on methods and his globally renowned designs. The buildings that he built were of a rela!vely low cost, whilst he used quality materials and standards that were rela!vely high. He was guided by ideas about a precise and organized space and its inclusion in the city. Within his housing complexes, he provides a comfort similar to that enjoyed by the richest. His accomplishments are characterized by an inser!on into the site, a building mass bal-ance; born of rigorous harmonic propor!ons, noble materials and his collabora!on with local sculptors, po$ers and landscapers. He used forms from classical examples, such as; squares, or ‘malls’ (walkways), the plaza and various objects of urban furniture, espe-cially the fountain. He paid great a$en!on to the quality of public space that adjusts (almost contrasts) its context; of a rapidly developing high urbaniza-!on.

research ques!on 3

figure 2.1: site plan 1:10000

figure 2.2: site plan 1:2500

Research Ques!onWhat quality does the enclave bring to the space?

An enclave is a territory whose geo-graphical boundaries lie en!rely with-in the boundaries of another territory.

figure 3.1: isometryfigure 3.2: sec!ons a, b, c

volumetric defini!on 4

A

B

C

A

B

C

A

B

C

introduc!on 5

top, figures 3.3 & 3.4 enclavebelow, figures 3.5 & 3.6 rela!on enclave with surrounding streets

volumetric defini!on 5

1. Enclosure

The basic design objec!ve of the masterplan is to enclose the site. This is achieved by arranging the buildings with the same quali!es; the same func!on (their floor plans), and their modules (their facades). The basic layout of the blocks consists of 5 story buildings according to the average height of the immediate neighboring buildings.

This can be seen as the conven!onal way of crea!ng an enclave in most European ci!es. What should be focused on here is the 3 addi!onal stories placed on top of the two buildings in the North-East and North-West. This can be thought of as an unavoidable choice for the architect. Pouillon, increased the density of these par!cular, North-facing, blocks, in order not to cast a shadow on the inside of the residence.

2. Extra volume

The appearance of the tall building is re-duced with several strategies;

Pouillon divided the building ver!cally with the upper part being recessed, crea!ng a running balcony. Addi!onally, he divided the face of the upper part, ver!cally, into narrow planes of glass, with repe!!ve mullions. With these two strategies the façade can be seen lighter and less imposing.

The placing of the low-rise garages reduces the apperance of the high-rise building again This was an unavoidable choice, because the space where the low-rise garages exist would be un-suitable for high-rise buildings, as they would be too close to the neighbouring houses, physically; for cas!ng a shadow and also psychologically; the buildings were set back, from the road, to create open space.

figure 3.7: Inner Volumes L-shape and Tower

volumetric defini!on 6

3. Inner volumes

TowerThe tower func!ons as a Landmark, but is not higher than the tall rectangular blocks behind it. The ground floor is open. The tower is seen higher than it is, because of the facade of the upper part (of the 8 story buildings), in the distance, in rela!on to the 4 story building.

L shape buildingIntriguingly, this building is 4 stories high, which is one story less to its adjoining block. The reason for this is explained below;1. Improving the in!macy; the minus 1 story, ‘L’ shaped, building helps the complex maintain the enclave, whilst not being too high, as of the other buildings (of 5 stories), thus not to impose its height on the inside of the site.2. To maintain, geometrically, the principle of an enclave; the ‘L’ shaped building, of 4 stories, emphasizes the enclave within the en-!re complex. To make the longest block to be read as one.With this building an in!mate atmosphere is created within the in-ner space, separa!ng the court into several parts. Without the ‘L’ shape building, the residen!al complex would be too monumental, too monotonous, and also too open to the outside

figure 3.8: di!erent perspec"ve views on tower

introduc!on 7volumetric defini!on 7

view 1

view 2

view 3

1 3

2

figure 3.9: circula!onfigure 3.10: landscape

8

Circula!on

There is a strong separa!on between car parking zone and pedes-trian zone. Car parking spaces surrounding housing blocks act as bu"er zones that mediate inner blocks and the streets.

Inner landscape

The architect divided the inner court into the paves and green spac-es. Trees is arranged to play an important role – translucent volume. Plaza is designed to be like a cozy garden surrounded by tall trees and wall made of bushes. Tall trees cast shade on the square and act like bu"er for privacy.

Boundaries

The architect used physical boundaries and psychological boundar-ies in landscaping; lawns can be crossed but is felt like barriers. And also hedges hide up the plaza.

circula!on

pedestrians

cars

introduc!on 9

figure 3.11 : concept of the inner courtyards

inner courtyards 9

Inner Courtyards

SquareIn this sec!on of the enclave, a large open space is wrapped around by a single building, thus crea!ng the same atmosphere of a square.

PlazaA central prominent space that is enclosed by trees and buildings, Pouillon creates a sense of a plaza like se"ng.

StreetPouillon creates the e#ect of a street (or) mall by crea!ng two side-walks along a narrow space between two buildings.

square

street

plaza

inner courtyards 10

figure figure

square

street

plaza

figure 3.12: views on inner court-yards

introduc!on 11

figure figure

housing 11

figure 4.1: housing typolgie

housing 12

figure 4.2: Housing concept

Housing E!ciency:

The two rows of housing share one staircase and pipe space. Each parallel apartment is mirrored, with a varia"on; there are two types, of slight di#erences The circula"on space is minimized in the interior space.Every room has good and flexible condi"ons so that it can accom-modate for the needs of all types of inhabitants.

Pouillon gave the inhabitants the possibility of making their own house by changing the layout.Two rooms (can be three rooms), three rooms (can be four rooms).

The module in the floor plan is related to the grid in the façade; where all the ver"cal lines meet exterior wall.The exterior walls are rela"vely thick.

eleva!on 13

figure 5.1: eleva!on concept

Eleva!on

1. There is a par!cular order in the facades; the true height of the buildings is well hidden. The pilasters, alternately separated by ver-!cal windows and panels, are covered with plates of red marble. 2. The four-stories form a horizontal ‘register’ generally only ex-ceeded, in height, by the tower and the extra three floors, placed on top of the tall buildings.In this part (the ‘register’); the stone, is the dominant material, above the register; the design of the facade is made of narrow bays defined by mullions - precast reinforced concrete. The ‘regis-ter’ (these horizontal bands), at each story height, creates flowing lines (reoccurring in Pouillon’s work) - which enlarge the percep-!on of the space.

materiality 14

figure 6.1: landscape fountain

figure 6.3: interior material

figure 6.2: eleva!on materials

Materiality

The main material of the residence bu!alo is sandstone.This gives, combined with the thick walls, a luxurious and warm atmosphere. It also makes the building look very natural. The combina"on of the green landscape with the sandstone works really well.

conclusion 15

Conclusion

Fernand Pouillon groups markets, shops, public spaces and civic buildings into a residen!al complex, hence giving the place a feel of an urban centre. This is something way ahead of its !me period. In the Residence Bu"alo in Paris, the quality of spaces created by the enclave is two-fold.

The interior open spacesThe buildings in the periphery of the site create the enclave. By varying the heights in the structures and adding blocks that create niche pockets, a completely new quality is brought into this open space. It longer remains one large open space, but gets divided into di"erent zones. Pouillon brings in the quali!es of the “street”, “pla-za” and the “square” (all urban en!!es) into these zones using the surroundings.

The e!ect of the enclave on the exteriorsThe Residence Bu"alo is an iconic project that occupies almost a whole city block. The context only comprises of smaller buildings arranged in a row house pa#ern. However Pouillon tries to suppress this feeling of massiveness by crea!ng di"erent details in the fa-cade. He creates a sense of an op!cal illusion that makes one feel that the building is only 4 stories in height (similar to the surround-ings) whereas it is actually 7 stories in reality. In some places the blocks in the periphery are also recessed to provide that extra gap between buildings to con!nue maintaining the scale and propor-!ons of the building with its context.

Pouillon knows, very well, how to vary the ver!cal scale to meet the prescrip!on (the project objec!ves); the separa!on of the blocks reduces the visual percep!on of the actual density, making it a much more pleasant place to live.

bibliography 16

Bibliography

Lucan, Jacques, Fernand Pouillon, Architecte. Montrouge, Pan!n, Meudon, Boulogne, Picard Publishers, January 2003, France, Book, 143 pages, 09.09.2010.

Lejeune, Jean-Francois, The New Modern City, Princeton Architectural Press, 1996, USA, Book, 194 pages, 21.09.2010.

Cohen, Jean-Lois, Above Paris, The Aerial Survey of Roger Henard, Architectual Press, 1996, USA, Book, 21.09.2010.

Architecture Contemporaine et Design, h"p://habitatcontemporain.blogspot.com/ , website, blog, 22.09.2010, 12:30.

Wikipedia (France), Fernand Pouillon, h"p://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Pouillon , website, 24.09.2010, 13:30.

Fernand Pouillon Architecte website, Les pierres Sauvages de Belcastel, Associa!on Loi 1901, h"p://fernandpouillon.com/ , website, 12.09.2010, 21:00.