Since February 2023, the Paulette Fost student residence has welcomed its first residents: engineering students from the Institut Supérieur de Mécanique de Paris (ISAE-SUPMÉCA), whose school is located nearby. In spring 2024, the premises will be handed over to Paris 2024, which will accommodate Olympic and Paralympic athletes there for the duration of the Games. Then, at the end of 2024, the building will permanently return to its original purpose as a student residence.
Located halfway between the Pleyel Hub and the urban fabric of historic Saint-Ouen, the site embodies the domestic dimension of the Athletes’ Village. It symbolises the urban transition between the former rehabilitated industrial sites and the historic city centre.
The project is based on the idea of achieving an optimum in terms of structure and capacity, capable of generating architectural and spatial generosity. The building’s structure consists of a series of concrete columns and slabs reduced to their simplest expression. This minimal structural system is complemented by brick masonry walls between the columns, as well as large openings overlooking the surrounding landscape.
The façade design is rooted directly in the site through a contemporary reinterpretation of the characteristic façades of the Atelier de l’École building opposite. The 130 apartments, 65 of which are adapted for people with disabilities or reduced mobility, are fully furnished and equipped studios ranging from 18 to over 21 sq m, each with a compact kitchen.
On the ground floor, the residence provides a co-working space, a connected laundry facility and a university restaurant. On the upper floor, residents have access to a relaxation area with an adjoining terrace offering views over the Seine, Île Saint-Denis and La Défense.
ENVIRONMENTAL APPROACH
The Paulette Fost residence was delivered under a design-and-build contract. This approach optimises conventional construction solutions and made it possible to meet the contractual commitments—particularly in terms of carbon emissions and summer thermal comfort—within an extremely tight budget and schedule.
The project was designed and built with climate and environmental considerations fully integrated, in accordance with Solideo’s requirements. It consequently achieved four certifications and labels: BBCA (Low-Carbon Building), NF HQE, E3C2 (Positive-Energy Building), and Biodiversity Label (protection of urban biodiversity).
By meeting all these criteria while also being designed to adapt over time to different uses and ways of living, the project addresses the requirements of tomorrow’s housing: sustainability and flexibility.
LIGHT INSTALLATIONS
For the student residence for engineering students at Supméca, Julien Serve draws on representations of the ancient athlete, who embodies the pursuit of perfect harmony between body and mind. These two inseparable components contribute to the ancient ideal of excellence and balance pursued by athletes.
While ancient thinkers used the body as a reference and symbol of rationalism in architecture—as exemplified by Vitruvius—the Renaissance continued this exploration of the body as a means of measuring and representing the world, notably through the work of Leonardo da Vinci.
The artist thus seeks to place his work within this lineage through an artistic gesture. Across the residence’s seven levels, seven artworks explore the interaction between the interlocking forms of the circle and the square and the human body in motion.
The bodies depicted by the artist are both Olympic and Paralympic, able-bodied and disabled, reflecting the multiplicity and diversity of the bodies that surround us.
The neighbouring ISAE-SUPMÉCA school was involved in the production of the artwork, with the technical design entrusted to students who developed the project in collaboration with the artist and architects. They thus played an active role in creating this landmark artwork for their residence.
