Visited a friend in an interesting deck-access/breezeway-type building near Rennes yesterday, 'Utopia', Bruz.
Some English description: https://www.stirworld.com/see-features-bruz-utopia-housing-by-champenois-architectes-explores-idyllic-community-living
The courtyard seems quite dominated by the footbridges at first, but there was plenty of light at the base when we visited. Probably lets more light to the internal windows on the ground floor than a conventional corridor design. Will be interesting to see how the plants are doing in a few years.
Only flaw my friends said...
(1/2)
@jroper
Interesting design, thanks for sharing.
At first glance it looks like a lot of empty space, but maybe that'll be better after the trees grow in?
@jrefior The scale of the courtyard relative to the building felt pretty normal to me, compared to other courtyard buildings and apartment complexes set around open areas. My photos don't really capture the width of the building/walls itself well.
I wonder if it'll be a bit dark once the trees grow in and they still have all the footbridges.
was the greenhouse-like roof rooms attached to the top level apartments (via internal staircases). Apparently they're too cold in winter and too hot in summer to really be used for anything except keeping gardening tools, which is not too surprising as they're all glass.
The location is 5 minutes walk from the shops, 8 minutes from the train station, 1 stop to Rennes then 1.5 hour TGV to Paris.