Housing Building, Quai Henri IV, Paris, France. Architect: LIN, 2015.

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Located on the riverbanks of the Seine in the 4th arrondissement, the mixed apartment building contains 70 social housing units, 74 privately owned apartments and 1 kindergarten. The building elegantly blends in the urban context of the Quai Henri IV, by reasserting the courtyard structure and bringing consistence to the existing block. The innovative design of the volume creates three courtyards with gentle vegetation and allows magnificent views over the Seine. The apartments are organized around vertical stairways, which also operate as light shafts and allow light to enter deeply into the building. The building contains a wide variety of housing types (90 types), resulting from both, the volume and a study on new types of living and family constellations. The volume is enfolded in a facade, which alternates transparent and opaque elements, laying out broad balconies and emphasizing the external poenness of the flats and the remarkable panorama offered by the construction. The facade itself is punctuated by an alternation of bay windows and metallic panels made of anondized aluminium, which colours shift from metallic-grey to champagne. All elements of the facade (nose and undersides of balconies, handrails…) present the same colorimetric shades and offer a radiant harmony, evolving with the ambiance and the change of natural light during the day.