Although this may seem like a lot of doors, using the common entrance to the building for the commercial properties in fact reduces the number of thresholds in a typical Parisian residential building. However, it increases the awareness of who is coming and going and when, as it forces every person to pass by someone who lives or works in the building.
There are no individual residences on the ground floor. It holds half of the café, half of the day care space, the office for the cohousing community, and the cohousing's communal space which includes kitchen and dining facilities large enough to seat 28-30 people.The first floor hosts the second half of the café, the second half of the daycare and one of the largest individual family units boasting 3 bedrooms and living/dining room + kitchenette in 72m2 (775sq.ft.)
Also on the 1st floor, between the stairwells is a guest unit for the cohousing community, that is available for guests of residents.
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ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if this is getting too detailed, but would it make more sense to put the private living areas facing the atrium? Or did you have a reason to put the bedrooms & baths there? Just curious.
ReplyDeletein this case it's mostly because of the windows. Every bedroom/living room needs a window, and to put the living/dining room facing the courtyard instead of the secondary courtyard means essentially loosing a bedroom and results in rather large rooms which would not be consistant with the rest of the units nor with the ideology of cohousing.
ReplyDeleteI agree it's a shame not to have the living/dining room on the courtyard, likewise i'm frustrated with the café/daycare layouts... i really wanted the day care to have a visual connection with the courtyard, unfortunately it would void any possibility of a fire exit from the upper part of the café. so... help!
I AM currently toying with putting the café toilets on the street instead of the courtyard, but it hurts the utility stacking possibilities..