Text description provided by the architects. Castelnau-le-Lez is a town located near Montpellier in the South of France which enjoys a very mild Mediterranean climate. The new Prado Concorde development on the edge of the Lez river and at the entry to the town combines collective housing with school facilities and shops in a vast urban island surrounding a garden shaped like a valley.
The accommodation architecture systematically gives pride of place to the external extensions of the dwellings so that residents can make the most of the advantages of the climate. A genuine outdoor room increases the habitability of each dwelling, a living space where everyone has their own tree providing shade at mealtimes.
To achieve this objective, the project exploits an innovative concept of a large balcony whose triangular geometry with variable cross-section takes up the efforts through cantilevers in line with the tree container built into its thickest part. This high- performance prefabricated concrete component is systematically offset between floors to allow enough air for each tree to grow.
The advantages of these balconies go beyond their practical use; the play between their offsets and inversions and the combination of triangular prisms floating one above the other bring movement and lightness to the façade like a flight of birds.
