25.2.2010
CROU: 100 recycled container student housing in Le Havre, France
For the first time in France, the CROUS of Haute Normandie, Centre régional des oeuvres universitaires et scolaires, launches in june 2009 a program to build 100 students housing from repurposed shipping containers.
The site deals within the urban renewal strategy of the city. This area acts as a bridge between downtown and harbor area with undeniable development potential.
Our first approach is to propose a new identity to the site, to make a new landscape, a pyramid-like structure in response to the harbour area and the continuity of the city. The typology of all the vertical walls are carved with the image of an «urban canyon». The interior landscape is composed of basin reflecting the building and open garden.
Each container is a studio for one student, complete with a study area, bathroom and living room. The proposal consists in two sets built implanted perpendiculary to the basin.
This symbiosis between construction and water offers a confortable place to live in an unusual composition.