Excerpt: Cosmo Residence, a housing project by TAA (Taillandier Architectes Associés), blends flat and sloping roofs to achieve a more dynamic and non-linear aesthetic, enhancing its integration with suburban urbanism and architecture. The design incorporates a staggered layout, providing generous open areas for communal gardens and green spaces, highlighting the omnipresence of nature throughout the condominium.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] The project is located on a plot to the southwest of Toulouse, behind the ring road. The neighborhood where the project is situated lies at the entrance to the Mirail and Pradettes areas. Currently adjacent to a subdivision named Le Fourtou, the plot runs along the St Simon road. Unlike the surrounding estates, this neighborhood exhibits a suburban style of urban planning. The project plans to demolish the three office buildings in order, to construct four groups of collective residential buildings with one floor above ground level (R+1).
The alternation between flat roofs and sloping metal roofs is intentional to give a less linear appearance to the volumes so that it integrates better with the suburban urbanism and architecture. This design allows for beautiful ceiling heights in the living rooms. Buildings A, B, and C are oriented perpendicularly to the St Simon road and to the St Martory path. Thus, the architects reduce the linear façade along the streets and avoid direct sightlines within the plot. Building D will extend to the end of the plot along the pedestrian St Martory path to avoid creating a linear built frontage.
The staggered layout chosen provides open spaces that can accommodate several communal gardens for the condominium and allows for generous green spaces that highlight the omnipresence of nature. These gardens will be the subject of careful landscaping. They will be designed as real shared spaces and meeting places for the residents.
The façades are punctuated by the alternation of two volumes with different material treatments. The volumes covered with a fine white plaster are topped with a sloping roof, creating a setback in the façade compared to the brick volumes with flat roofs. These setbacks provide loggias for each apartment facing the living rooms. To avoid any gable effect on the street, the façades turn towards the two ends of the plot.
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