Japanese architecture studio Kengo Kuma & Associates has completed the Yama-Tani project, a wooden apartment building in Paris with a sculptural facade designed to “bring life to the street.”
Yamatani, which means mountain valley in Japanese, features folds of chestnut wood that cascade down its street-facing facade at pleasing angles to create patterns of light and shadow.
“By playing with its folds, the main street façade revisits the mountaintop and valley,” said Kengo Kuma & Associates.
“Each section of wood receives the sun following its path,” the studio continued. “This main facade breaks the linearity and brings life to the street – a special vibration that makes the building unique.”
The five-storey building is listed on a small street called Passage Crimée, and aims to provide housing with a “village-like” feel in keeping with the surrounding low-rise buildings.
Designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates in collaboration with developer REI Habitat, Yama-Tani contains 11 apartments accessed off the street via a central outdoor courtyard.
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Aiming to give residents a connection to nature, all apartments have some form of outdoor space, including balconies, terraces, walkways and deck areas.
“The accommodations are served by outdoor circulation corridors, which provide fluidity between outside and inside, and breathability and softness for a calmer feel and more connected to the season and weather,” Kengo Kuma & Co. said.
Its structure was built from local French lumber, including timber beams and columns, timber-framed walls, and oriented board (OSB) boards.
The southeast corner of Yama-Tani has been set back to help increase the amount of natural light in the central courtyard, which features facades clad in Douglas fir trees.
“Wood species are selected based on the expected design – pre-aged chestnut for the Main Street facade is stiff enough to allow precise folded intersections, and Douglas fir for the courtyard facade naturally silvers over time,” said Kengo Kuma & Associates. .
Kengo Kuma & Associates was founded by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma in 1990. Other recent projects the studio has completed include an expansion of an arts center in Lisbon with a sweeping canopy and a museum in Seoul surrounded by suspended aluminum tubes.
Photography by Sergio Grazia.
Project credits:
Architect: Kengo Kuma & Partners
Engineering: EQO, S2T Fluids, and AÏDA Acoustic Engineering
Construction Site Management: EQO Engineering
Construction company: Rubner & Rehago
