In Bordeaux, accommodation you are the hero – Liberation

From April 3 to 6, 2025 in Bordeaux, The quartus endowment fund for architecture Organizes a series of urban meetings, workshops and explorations on how to design and live in cities. An event that Release is a partner.

This March morning, we get lost and we do not meet a cat in the spans of Brazza. The new district of the right bank of Bordeaux, supposed to combine 4,800 dwellings by 2032, has the minimal charm and the confusing face of these city portions created ex nihilo: a brand new set of mismatched buildings, collage, where social life has not yet taken. The fact remains that here, in the absence of a neighborhood life, some of the new arrivals enjoy unprecedented compensation: inside, they were able to invent, from floor to ceiling, what their accommodation would be.

Called « capable volumes », these accommodation to finish come from an idea promoted by the former director general of the city’s development, Michèle Laruë-Charlus, at the time of the launch of Brazza. « The goal was doubleshe rewinds, twenty years later. Affordable accommodation for young households and craftsmen who wanted to stay or return to town; and appropriate spaces that adapt to contemporary needs. ” The city, owner of the land, capped the price of the M2 (around 2,200 euros), submitted the acquisition of future lots on resource conditions, and set up an anti -history system. Loading, then, for promoters and archis to carry out this architectural and real estate experiment, provided for several hundred lots.

Example with the project of 32 housing units capable of the EDEN promoter and the architects of A6A, winner of the 2023 silver square, housing category. Either, distributed in two twin buildings, so many large raw concrete boxes, 5 meters high from Chappe to Chappe, delivered two years ago in their simplest device: bathroom, toilet and kitchenette; VMC and technical sheath. By giving up all or part of the double height, the initial surfaces (from 45 to 83 m2) can almost double. « The stake, as a designer, was to know how to retire in time to leave the most free field possible to future occupants »underlines Roberto de Uña (A6A), who describes the project as a « Succession of superimposed houses », And today lives one of them. So that all development scenarios remain possible, including for the following inhabitants: « Windows everywhere and two entrance doors. »

The neighbors met are won over. On the first floor, Michael Hauss, a young architect too, was able to draw the plans of the apartment he shares with his partner. “The usual new programs are very compact, standardized and frozen. Personalization stops at the choice of tiles or fittings. I liked the idea that here, before moving, it takes a little wet. ” All at a price defying competition: « 2,700 euros per m2 after work, versus more than 4,000 elsewhere in new. » Same enthusiasm in the second, where Emeline Vincent, setting in a Bordeaux museum, lives with family in 130 m2: « An unexpected surface in Bordeaux! » A cousin of his companion, interior designer, supported the couple: « We were able to make the apartment in our image: choose the number of rooms (four, editor’s note)organize interior life around the kitchen, and keep certain architectural features, such as apparent concrete. ” To keep the budget (255,000 euros in acquisition + 80,000 work), they did a part themselves: « The installation of the kitchen, the installation of the floor upstairs, the sanding and opening of the chappe on the ground floor. »

In terms of promoters, returns vary. Some have complained of not having resolved the profitability equation, linked to the price cap. Others left convinced of the experience. Like Eden Promotion, which has developed other volumes capable of La Rochelle. Or the pass (Housing Worker Committee), including the participative housing program in social home ownership (Lemérou Architecture) has ideally married to the flexibility of capable volumes: « This has produced very personal accommodation, close to the needs of peopleconfides his CEO, Imed Robbana. It will inspire us in the future. ” There remains the question of accessibility: these empty boxes, where everything is to be done, have put off certain candidate households. In fact, a third of the lots built by Eden and A6a were invested by … architects. « The social assessment remains ambiguous, because instead of modest households and craftsmen, it is a » rather + »CSP rush that happened »Note Bernard Blanc, former town planning assistant and DG, until 2018, of the Aquitanis public lessor. In Brazza as elsewhere, the future will say what these volumes are really capable.