Metal trellises offer a framework for climbing plants and vines around these recently completed houses in Poitiers, France, by Bordeaux studio Lanoire & Courrian (+ slideshow).
Lanoire & Courrian has added 32 residences in the suburban district of Bel Air, including 22 rental properties and 10 houses for sale. Arranged in two rows, the houses create new streets that branch off a realigned Rue des Frères Morane.
Each of the houses is clad with corrugated metal, which has been powder-coated in shades of grey and lilac. Timber fencing lines the base of the walls and marks the borders of each property.
Rather than position the houses evenly, the architects used a staggered arrangement to break up the facades and create natural recesses. Narrow passageways were added between houses to offer visual corridors.
"We imagined the project as a series of strips on a plot," say the architects. "The idea is to have an overall geometry of buildings and vegetation."
A secondary road scoops in through the centre of the site, leading to some entrances and allowing access to driveways. Houses without driveways can make use of an underground car park with its entrance on Rue des Frères Morane.
"We wanted to create an island that is both an intimate space and a porous and fluid space, allowing different modes of travel with respect to both the outside and inside," add the architects.
The houses follow a standard layout, with living rooms on the ground floor and bedrooms upstairs. Each residence also comes with a garden and a small shed.
Other housing projects we've featured in France include a timber-clad retirement home near Paris and a social housing complex in Saint-Gilles Croix de Vie with camouflage print on its walls.
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Photography is by Stephane Chalmeau.
