Le Cours des Arts is an intergenerational housing complex in Beauregard (beautiful outlook) which takes its name from the vantage point on which it is located and which offers distant views between the valleys of the Ille and Vilaine rivers.

To fully appreciate this, one need only climb to the top of the residential building located at the Southern tip of the triangle of this project, designed by the architect from Rennes, a/LTA.

To build this diverse ensemble of housing units which combines a social aspect and home-buying possibilities, the project management team NEOTOA bravely rose to the challenge of creating an “intergenerational housing complex”.

Organised around a central communal courtyard, which six years later would become artists' studios and gardens as well as 119 housing units, 8 of which have shared spaces, between 9 and 11 sq.m., making this project stand out.

Following the line drawn by the hedgerow, the opening in the landscape consequently becomes the centerpiece of the project; the three constructions make it possible to free up space in the heart of the block. What is left to be done is to work on this “constructed empty space”.

This “constructed empty space” separates as much as it unites the buildings. And it must seek to reconcile spatially, in its own way, the constant tension that exists within us all, caught up as we are in our daily lives, between spending time with our community or with ourselves.

The random distribution of the houses and artists' studios creates spaces evidently conducive to interaction as they break with the panoptic effect which would otherwise have been given to this wide open space surrounded by mounds.

The noteworthy use of weathering steel, seemingly unusual for Rennes, highlights the key elements of the project. The line drawn echoes the design of this porous and traversable block.

Could this be a new kind of phalanstery? If we also take into account the leisure room which houses communal laundry facilities, this project rekindles, in its own way, a utopian discourse and opens up a potential reconciliation with such ideals.

Ille-et-Vilaine is a department of France, located in the region of Brittany in the northwest of the country.

Founded by Maxime Le Trionnaire and Gwénaël Le Chapelain a/LTA has been awarded by 40 UNDER 40 / 40 European teams from - 40 years in 2014

In 2013, the architects Maxime Le Trionnaire and Gwénaël Le Chapelain came to carry out this programme with a new kind of community living in mind. 

This is where the main stakes of the life of this future project lie.

Too much visibility of each space could make those less favoured spaces seem like they were “being exposed” or “exposing” themselves and, therefore, become an obstacle to social interaction.

It has been used on the balcony handrails and houses alike.