Maison L by Christian Pottgiesser. RIBA Award 2012 EU.

The project, just outside Paris overlooking La Défense, by Christian Pottgieser architecturespossibles (CPAC) seems more like a village than a house with its five towers built around a partially underground square in a tightly interwoven pattern of houses and landscape.



The five bare concrete towers face each other in continual resettlement as a metaphor of the modern family. In other words, the family lives together but each person has his own private space.





Christian Pottgiesser’s project fulfils the client’s wish without disrupting the green estate of almost 5,000 square metres.





The complex of five simple storey blocks, where the children and parents live, is situated on the edge of a park. The feeling of mixed spaces is increased by the indiscriminate use of the same materials for exteriors and interiors - bare concrete for the walls and smooth concrete for the floors together with glass and wood. The whole arrangement culminates in a partially covered square, the family’s communal area and meeting place for the various living quarters.





The architects worked on the project for seven years, developing it in close collaboration with the client. The results for “Maison L” such as the RIBA Award 2012 EU speak clearly: by following the contours and colour tones of the land the architecture is ideally positioned in a greatly esteemed natural environment in order to create a sort of home that reflects our times, in other words, a home like a village.

Project: christian pottgiesser architecturespossibles, http://www.pottgiesser.fr
Christian Pottgiesser, Pascale Thomas Pottgiesser
Engineer: Joël Betito
General Contractor: Les Constructeurs de Suresnes
Photographer: George DUPIN
Completion date: project 2004-2007, implementation 2007-2011
Awards: RIBA Award 2012 EU