The eighteen-storey building is located in the Ile Seguin-Rives de Seine district on the site of the old Renault factories, which closed in the early 1990s for relocation.

Ateliers Jean Nouvel designed the building in three tiers, with a bulky base of textured concrete, a middle section clad with enamelled ceramic and a glass upper shaped like a giant greenhouse.

Clay-coloured ceramic panels create bands of colour around the centre of the building and were intended to evoke the industrial heritage of the site. These stripes are interspersed with white and black rectangles.

Construction completed in June 2011, but the studio are yet to release images of the building's interior.

French architect Nouvel launched his studio in the 1980s and has since worked on a host of projects including the Philharmonie de Paris, set to become one of the world's most expensive concert halls, and Les Bains des Docks aquatic centre in Le Havre.

See more architecture and design by Jean Nouvel »

Photography is by Julien Lanoo. See more photographs by Lanoo on Dezeen.

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by Jean Nouvel appeared first on Dezeen.

Weiss wanted to create a contemporary extension, but also respect the traditional materials palette. "The chosen materials are an homage to the existing house, but stay in a modern urban context," the architect explained.

Unlike the original building, which has a vernacular roof, the extension features an asymmetric roofline that slopes upwards at two opposite corners of the building to form a butterfly shape.

The two buildings barely touch, so only a single doorway connects to the existing hallway from a new open-plan living and dining room, while two patios slot into the spaces between.

A new staircase leads up to the first floor, where the irregular shape of the roof provides a faceted ceiling over the extra bedroom and dressing room.

There is no connection to the main house from these rooms, but a doorway leads out to a small terrace on the roof.

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Photography is by Julien Lanoo.

Here's some more information from the architect:

Maison D - Emmanulle Weiss

House D (Maison D) is an extension of a family home in the middle of an urban area on a parcel of land twice as wide as the existing house.

The house doubles the linear qualities of the existing house façade, thus unifining a roadside landscape that was deconstructed before. The extention also doubles the importance of the private family garden.

The House D extension welcomes all the important living functions, private income patio, kitchen and living room, the architect (Emmanuelle Weiss) chose to incorporate on the first level of the extention an equipped sleeping quarter, with bathroom and a well organised dressing room.

The result of this exercise frees up the existing house, wich has mainly become the children's territory. Also now, the complementation of House D makes room to add a large office area in the existing house, addapted to the professional life of its inhabitants.

The volume, high levels, low levels: "zones" create a dialogue with the existing typical style house. All the volumes in House D translate into its roofline, bringing a richness to the space. Natural light embraces the volume, sometimes directly, sometimes reflected, it fills the complete project and living quarters.

House D is an answer to the existing devision of the main house. Its functional properties talk directly to the vertical circulations of the existing house, it opens up living space.

To link the old and new together, the architect chose to use a minimal contact between both architectures. The new differentiates itself on the outside by two little patios, only linking itself to the old on the interior where the new encroaches into the hallway.

The chosen materials are an homage to the existing house, but stay in a modern urban context. Dark bricks (reflecting back on a modern way to the dark old red bricks typical for this area) and aluminium detailing show subtle hints to thier surroundings.

Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan (extension only)

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Emmanuelle Weiss appeared first on Dezeen.

The museum features a 360-metre-long chain of cuboidal glass and aluminium galleries that house a permanent collection as well as temporary exhibitions and art from the local neighbourhood. Located in Lens, northern France, the building opened to the public last week. Find out more about the Louvre Lens in our earlier story.

See more photography by Julien Lanoo on Dezeen or by visiting his website.

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photographed by Julien Lanoo appeared first on Dezeen.

To recreate the rhythms and patterns of the traditional local buildings, JKA and FUGA used one-inch-thick roughly sawn spruce planks, which they had to source over a year in advance. "Only a few trunks presented enough nodes and few clapboards big enough were able to be pulled from each trunk," architect Jérémie Koempgen told Dezeen.

In typical Alpine barns the gaps between disjointed wooden planks would allow air to circulate round drying hay, but at Villa Solaire the gaps between each panel simply let extra light into the rooms inside.

The architects studied the shadows cast onto the villa by neighbouring buildings to determine the positions of the cut-out patterns. "The pattern within the cladding is designed to respond to the path described by these shadows. The areas receiving a greater amount of sun are all the more open," Koempgen said.

Originally they planned to cut the wood digitally before installation, but instead found it easier and more economical to attach the boards to the building frame first, then stencil on the patterns and employ a local carpenter to cut them by hand. "The construction marks slowly disappear but the cladding keeps the valor and traces of the handmade work," Koempgen explained.

The framework of the original farmhouse was restored, which the architects describe as an unusual practice. "A lot of operations on old farmhouses used to cut out the wood structure of the first level and replace it with concrete structures. In our case, the existing skeleton was integrally conserved," added Koempgen.

Inside the two-story house, a ground floor wading pool is surrounded with recycled slate tiles that were originally used to cover the roof.

Bedroom suites and a kitchen are located on the first floor and are positioned at each of the corners, leaving a cross-shaped living room between with windows on all four walls.

The different areas of this room are separated by level changes, which the architects describe as a reference to the topography of the of the Rhône-Alpes region.

"The house is conceived as an imprint of its surroundings," concluded Koempgen. "Imprint in terms of landscape and geography, in terms of sunlight, as well as in terms of history."

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Photography is by Julien Lanoo

Here’s a few words from the architects

Villa Solaire
JKA and FUGA

The project consists in a conversion of an ancient farmhouse into a luxury rental villa, revisiting traditional techniques. This former farmhouse is located in the historic district of Pied de La Plagne, in Morzine. Built in 1826, it was singled out by the municipality as a landmark for traditional architecture.

Drawing on the context: inside/outside fitting

A uniform cladding wraps the whole farm. One of the challenges of the project was to preserve its appearance, while filtering light into the heart of the building.

The traditional technique of decorative cut-outs within the wood strips was used to perform specific perforations within the planks. The design of this simple and contemporary pattern is consistent with the equipment and techniques used by the local carpenter for cutting spruce slats. These cut-outs recall the disjointed battens of the traditional barn, used for drying hay.

Today, these slits bring light inside the building. The glazed elements of the project, which are flush with the inside of the façade, are partially hidden by the cover strips. As they are not visible from outside they do not interfere with the uniformity of the cladding.

Throughout the year, the surrounding roofs and buildings cast their shadows on the façades. The pattern within the cladding is designed to respond to the path described by these shadows: the areas receiving a greater amount of sun are all the more open and provide a certain legibility of the continuity between the common spaces of the house.

This concept of interlocking inside/outside, evokes a lifestyle in harmony with its surroundings and leads to the project being named the "solar house": a house exposed on its four façades to the path of the sun, perceived as a sundial.

Above: site plan - click above to see a larger image

Finding one’s bearings: a living geography.

The idea is to move through this house between four "blocks" steady as rocks, located at each corner of the building. Each independent unit forms a suite with sleeping area and amenities. Between these four blocks, the remaining space is occupied by a succession of stacked floors at different levels in the framework. This continuum of generous space welcomes the activities shared by the inhabitants: cooking, dining, watching a film, conversing in the living room, warming up around the fire…

Above: ground floor plan - click above to see a larger image

These four blocks mark the house as the summits punctuate the valley. In Haute Savoie, one instinctively relates the farms to the mountains. Again, this symbolic association is translated in each block as it is identified in its facing mountainous terrain, just as the framework can be interpreted as a forest, whose various topographical lines are recalled within the different floor levels.

Above: first floor plan - click above to see a larger image

Revealing the structure: nested scales or "the complex of the snail".

The charm of the original farm resides in the existing structure. Conserving its overall appearance was of one of the project's key challenges, which motivated its restoration: It was fully recovered and the original plastering preserved after brushing and trimming.

Above: section - click above to see a larger image

Compressed spaces, expanded spaces. Nesting areas.

In order to clear the room of the nave while meeting the rental house needs, utility functions were closely integrated. A strong contrast results from the scales of the cosy bedrooms, bathrooms and sleeping alcoves, next to the open central meeting space. The complexity of these nested spaces is combined with a similar research in terms of details and materials.

Above: section - click above to see a larger image

Client: Private
Cost: 1.100.000 € excl. tax
Area: 620 m² gross floor area
Beginning of studies: October 2009
Construction completion: January 2012
Program: Rental house – capacity 16 persons
Design Team: JKA – Jérémie Koempgen Architecture, FUGA – J.Aich & M.Recordon designers, J.Koempgen and J.Aich are members of the collective Ferpect
Contractors: SARL Laperrousaz (carpenter) / SARL Yves Gourvest Construction (masonry) / SARL Fourcade Herve (interior design) / Etablissements Guy Perracino (joinery) / Labevière (Electrician) / Marcellin (heating) / SARL CQFD Drouet (shutters) / Florinda Donga (curtains)

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and FUGA appeared first on Dezeen.

Named Orchard House, the building sits on the former site of a walled garden and orchard in Wiltshire and Studio Octopi was asked by the planning authorities to integrate the historic stone wall into the proposals, even though it had almost entirely eroded. "We had to reinstate the wall and this helped to form a series of compound courtyard spaces," architect Chris Romer-Lee told Dezeen.

The architects designed a two-storey house with both a staircase and a discreet lift, to enable easy access for a wheelchair without appearing unattractive. "The client was adamant that this house wouldn't be dominated by her disabilities," said Romer-Lee. "A family could easily live there without changing anything."

The first floor runs along one side of the building, but is recessed around a double-height living room on the ground floor.

A wall of glazing separates this living room from the south-facing courtyard outside. "We began to look at the house as a protective environment, a kind of hideaway within a series of courtyard spaces," explained Romer-Lee.

The main bedroom and work study are located on the ground floor, while a guest room and hobby studio occupy the top floor.

For the exterior walls, the architects used a mixture of lime render and timber slats, intended to reference the agricultural buildings typical of the surrounding area.

Other projects we've featured by Studio Octopi include a terraced house transformed into a combined gallery and living space.

See all our stories about Studio Octopi »

Photography is by Julien Lanoo.

Here's a project description from Studio Octopi:

Orchard House was commissioned by our client as a place in which to live, work and pursue various hobbies. The client specifically wanted to create a lasting piece of responsive architecture that was not defined by her use of a wheelchair and where the building interacted effortlessly with the landscape. The house has been designed to Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes.

Above: site plan - click above for larger image

Located on the site of a former walled kitchen garden and orchard, landlocked and accessed only by a track from the main road, the house and gardens form a sequence of enclosures that unfold revealing a private interior world reminiscent of the secret garden. The design and materials reference the style of traditional agricultural buildings preserving the original character of the site: the lower storey is rendered and the upper clad in loosely spaced timber slats. An historical ‘boundary’ wall was reinstated, intersecting the house, formed from local limestone.

Above: ground floor plan - click above for larger image

A simple free flowing plan wraps around a glazed central courtyard filling the house with natural light. The shallow plan, careful alignment of windows and a double height gallery allow views to cut across the building to the various gardens enabling multiple readings of the space. Two large sliding doors can be drawn to close down the open plan, shutting off the entrance hall, or library and master bedroom. The upper storey provides an office and second bedroom with screened windows that look out over the historic houses of Calne.

Above: first floor plan - click above for larger image

A studio was included to the north of the house looking over the orchard garden allowing the client to practise various arts and crafts both inside and out. In the garden, three old fruit trees are planted in an arrangement that suggests a fourth once stood between them. We replaced the missing tree, forming the focal point of the central courtyard.

Above: section - click above for larger image

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Studio Octopi appeared first on Dezeen.