Honorable Mention: International Architecture Awards 2022 
Des Lieux et Des Liens | Meyrin/Geneva, Switzerland | 2021

Architects: labac | architectures et espaces chantiers
Client: copératives codha et voisinage
Photographers: Julie Masson

The project of this buildings is conceived as “living spaces” and not simply as “real estate objects”: rather than thinking the two horizontal skyscrapers as “finished products”, the architecture is oriented to the users and their needs, especially in terms of transition spaces and places adapted to the complex and changing character of life and social structures. In each of the two buildings, three main lengthwise axes at levels 0, level 3 and level 5, connect the vertical circulation, the collective spaces and all the apartments.

The collective patios and galleries are heated spaces (mainly by the sun), which provide a place for residents common activities all year round, sheltered from bad weather. Characteristic of "urban wastelands", these spaces are designed as multipurpose and autonomous places, independent of apartments, dedicated to activities left to the imagination of the inhabitants. These spaces modify the scale of the buildings and segment the whole into parts of reduced dimension which allow a better appropriation of the places of life.

Around these collective spaces, the apartments are organized in a multitude of typologies to allow everyone to find the right shoe; from the studio to the seven-room, simplex and / or duplex, to the clusters of twelve rooms which bring together several micro-housing units around kitchens and common livingrooms, a set that will guarantee a great social and generational mix.

All of the apartments are supplemented by a certain amount of commercial spaces to be fitted out by independent, shops and a guesthouse, as well as common spaces (craftsmen workshops, meeting rooms, common laundry rooms, music room, library or other to be defined by future residents). This multiplicity of functions will allow a constant animation of the whole inside, and outside in the common gardens arranged between the buildings.

The buildings are planned in "hybrid" construction, namely the main load-bearing structures (walls, pillars and slabs) in reinforced concrete, and the facades in wooden construction with external cladding made of fiberglass reinforced concrete slat. The attic top floor is also built entirely of wood, and the roofs, with the exception of walkable terrace roofs, are planted and covered with photovoltaic solar panels to comply with the requirements of the Minergie-A label.