Natural Habitacle, Paris, France, project:
David Tajchman
Rue des Degrés is the smallest street in Paris. It measures barely 3.30 meters wide and 5.75 meters long, making it the shortest street in the French capital. Lined by blind facades, doors and windows still suggested having been walled up, Rue des Degrés has the picturesque charm of architectural and topographical curiosities to which only the secret history of the city can give meaning.
In the heart of Sentier, this commercial district of the 2nd arrondissement of Paris extremely mineral and where the absence of nature is quite dramatic, Rue des Degrés constitutes a void between two blind walls that connects Rue Beauregard and Rue de Cléry with a public staircase.
This case study townhouse, designed by David Tajchman, shows the possibilities of inhabiting a very narrow in-between land, keeping the free pedestrian movements by building above the staircase-street.
The Topological Habitacle shows a continuous domestic circulation merging with the slabs on each floor. Obtained by deformation of the floors upwards or downwards, it was designed with the narrow and short land features in mind, close to the body and neighboring walls, benefiting from generous living spaces. More generally, this topological case study can be adapted to similar short and narrow lands located in cities.
