CORAL HOUSE. GENEVA.

GROUP8

Architects: group8
Photos by: Régis Golay, Federal Studio, Geneva
Typology: Collective housing
Location: Geneva
Date: 2011

The Coral house is located in an area, formed by a large urban block surrounded by Giuseppe-Motta, Grand-Pré and Chandieu streets. The site is accessible by the main road Grand-Pré, this avenue lined with trees, cuts straight though the building block. The underground parking is accessible by the entrance of the adjacent building, the Azure center, located on the Grand-Pré road. This new housing estate takes part of the regeneration of a former industrial site.
At the intersection of the avenue and the Chandieu road, a fountain and a sculpture, built in collaboration between the artist Fabric Gygi and the architectural office ADR, supplement a public square.
The building consists of 6 floors, including a double attic. Coral house offers 58 housing units, from 4 to 6 room flats (kitchen counted as a room). The ground floor and the first floor are dedicated to commercial activities.
The façade on the road front is entirely glazed, exposing the living rooms to the outside giving the impression that the building has been cut.
The clients specifically asked for a building without balconies, the most suited solution was to have sizable sliding windows, giving the impression of being outdoors by opening large sections of the façade.
The internal organization of the flats has been developed as typological system, which puts the hall in the center of the plan, allowing it to distribute all the rooms. The volume of the attic is designed as an object on a pedestal.