virtual Urban Green

Off Architecture, in partnership with Duncan Lewis Scape Architecture, has proposed a series of low rise apartment complexes that becomes virtual urban green belts in Anglet, France. The design is for two developments with differing egress and layouts. The buildings themselves are somewhat conventional, sitting two to four stories tall with standard floor plans and patios. They are set on a tiered landscape and follow the ground, stepping down a story at a time.

Site One stands at it tallest four stories with a passage at the ground floor in the middle of the complex, allowing access to the inner courtyards. Tucked under parking along the length of the project eliminates adjacent hardscapes. Site Two is a low set series of apartments placed on a slope with individual walkouts above the next unit.

What sets the design apart of is the extreme green space surrounding and on top of the buildings. The greenery is encouraged to climb trellises on the balconies, along the side of the apartments and over the roofs. The flora is so intense that the projects have the quality of an abandoned space in which nature has reclaimed. Renderings show deer and sheep on the wooded grounds, as though the city has dissolved into a nature/bourg hybrid, fed by dirt paths and copious living elements. An urban back to the earth movement enshrined in the built environment.