M building

The building design by Stéphane Maupin & Nicolas Hugon was realised on a plot in the north of Paris, approx 600 meters long and 25 meters wide. The transformation of this narrow abandoned street allows the establishment of whole string of new buildings. The plot was sided by a cemetery, and the building could not have any openings on that side, making it impossible to have normal front to front flats. The design impressively manages to get around those constraints: each of the flat benefits from both multiple sights and light sources at any time of day and year.

A central void appears where the dwellers can share a continually illuminated unique space. As the light hits one side in the morning the opposite side will benefit from it in the afternoon.The shape of this new space is favorable to the composition of an unusual landscape. It is made from a cascade of Parisian roofs with its respective proportions and rhythm, as well as its apparent disorder. The whole is included in a succession of terraces which represent genuine extra room for the flats. Those terraces are so wide and comfortable that they become like private suspended gardens.