Avignon - Residence Paul Valéry
- Department: Vaucluse
- Commune: Avignon
- Naming: Paul Valéry Residence
- Authors: Albert CONIL, Rasto KONIC
- Date: 1975-1977
- Labelling: prefectorial decision of 21 February 2022
The residence is located in the first crown of the Avignon extensions. The program is that of a building in R + 4 of 11 dwellings, with parking in the basement and commercial premises. It was built in the early 1970s, during the development of the urbanization of Avenue Monclar by apartment buildings. The innovative concept consists in the delivery of a building in free trays with a central cage and two sheath columns, the interior fittings being decided by the buyers.
Integration into the urban context is ensured by an alignment on the built front of Monclar Avenue as well as a template based on the nearby construction. The plot is occupied by the building built along Monclar Avenue. The facade of the ground floor, parallel to the track, presents a certain variety thanks to a device with redents in slight withdrawal leaving the fair share to the sidewalks.
The particular volume of the floors on the avenue is constituted by a succession of terraces in redents in order to promote a better orientation of the bays towards the south-west, to minimize the vis-à-vis and to preserve the privacy of the balconies. The withdrawal is accentuated by a doubling of the redents, integrating planters. Everything is arranged, this time, in cantilevers to optimize the surface of the dwellings. The attic level marking a withdrawal from the previous floors allows to register in continuity with the neighboring building. The roofs are on the terrace.
The dwellings are mostly through thanks to the central arrangement of the stairwell that allows to clear all the facades. The typologies range from T2 to T5.
The back of the plot is occupied by a garden, offering an open space on the surrounding pavilion fabric. The facades are made of light grey architectural concrete with a language of simple models of hollow joints and projecting cabochons in the right of the bank holes; the whole is carefully wedged. The collective outdoor spaces on the parking slab are made up of a mineral entrance courtyard and a garden-terrace planted with shrubs on 40 cm of topsoil and structured by elements in rough architectural concrete: wall, gargoyle, staircase. The private outdoor spaces are arranged in terraces-loggias as an extension of each accommodation.
The Paul Valéry residence meets several of the criteria required for a remarkable contemporary architecture label: singularity, notoriety of the realization and its designers, a clear reference to Brutalist architecture.
Add to this its perfect authenticity, its quality of design and realization, its very good state of maintenance.
Author: PACA DRAC – CAUE 84, 2021
