The project for a new residential complex Le mail a Vélizy Villacoublay, not far from Paris, is inspired by the high quality naturalistic environment of the area: the woods and gardens of the surroundings also influence the desaturated architecture, creating new balances between nature and construction, between public and private, between collective and individual
The ECDM Architectes studio is participating in the architecture projects competition for the residential complex Le mail in Vélizy Villacoublay, offering an idea of living intimately connected with the environment: living in a place means living its connections with the context, whether it be nature, city, neighborhood, etc. From these connections arise the emotional values that residents will maintain with the place itself
Following the guiding principle of the project, the architects propose buildings that allow 100% of the residential units to enjoy the primary luxury of generous dedicated outdoor spaces. In this quest for a new balance between built space and green space, between interior and exterior, the facades of Le Mail are structured
From the relationship between plant and mineral follows another design principle, that between geometry and free form, an analogy of the formal relationship between urbanity and landscape. The lines of the buildings of Le Mail are the result of a delicate geometrization that contrasts with the typical orthogonality of built environments, a legacy of Euclidean culture. The architecture studio also works on the multiplicity of project scales: the intimate dimension and the collective one have the same importance
Given the close connection between public space, green space, and living space in this project, the attention to the quality of all shared environments is extremely high. Unqualified space means devalued space, and in Le Mail de Vélizy Villacoublay, there will be no second-class environments: thus, the parking lot will be treated like an entrance hall, the waste rooms will be enhanced, and the bicycle storage rooms will be naturally illuminated and ventilated; the passageways will become frames of the park
