Modernist flat

This two-storey, 108 m² flat has the feel of an artist’s studio. It features transparent volumes and a beautiful living room with a double-height section. The bright living areas open onto private planted terraces. On the ground floor, this duplex apartment has a living room, dining room and open-plan kitchen, as well as a mezzanine leading to three bedrooms and a bathroom. With its garden, this flat is an innovative reflection of a different way of living in the city. It has its own car park.

Keen to offer an alternative to blocks and towers of flats, Jean Renaudie built a series of star-shaped buildings in Ivry that spread out over the town centre, a fascinating interweaving of passageways and terraces, raw concrete and vegetation. This complex demonstrates innovation and originality in its architectural form, as well as in the mix of functions, with shops, offices, housing and public facilities blending seamlessly together. The project, which brought the architect international acclaim, has been awarded the “20th Century Heritage” label by the French Ministry of Culture.

In 1978, Jean Renaudie was awarded the Grand Prix National de l’Architecture for his body of work, and the Centre Pompidou, in association with the town of Ivry, organised a retrospective exhibition of his work in 2002.A member of the Atelier de Montrouge, Jean Renaudie (1925-1981) set up his own practice in Ivry-sur-Seine in 1968. His most influential work was the renovation of the centre of this town, on which he worked until his death, and for which he developed urban planning principles that broke with the Modern Movement and the Athens Charter. He saw the city as “combinatorial”, attempting to implement “a logic of complexity”. For housing that was all different from one another, he designed star-shaped buildings with numerous accessible terraces, pedestrian walkways and complex configurations that allowed different functions to interweave. Jean Renaudie was also responsible for a similar urban renewal project in Givors town centre (1974-1981), where he set out to design a new type of housing.