House of Algeria

House of Algeria - City of Paris International University (CIUP), is the encounter and the cultural blending of “World cultures” around a park, the whole forming a gateway between Paris and the suburbs. For us, building the House of Algeria on such a site assumes a particularly powerful symbolism. We fully subscribe to the philosophy with which the CIUP approaches the project: the search for an emblematic contemporary architecture that explicitly reaffirms and renews the original ideals of the CIUP.

To complete this project at the competition stage, we solicited the poet Michaël Batalla to realize "Habitation poétique", a poetic cartography of Algeria.

The project is organised around three founding spatial principles:
→ The patio, the heart of the House, is a living space [inwardness / relation to the Park]. It makes reference to what is described by Mohammed Dib in his novel La Grande Maison.
→ The gallery as a large collective space going through the centre of the building [decorative connecting floor] creates a new relation between the public and private spaces.
→ The motif as the smallest constituent element of the building’s identity [symbolic / unity]. It becomes the aesthetic bringing together all the architectonic elements of the building.

Project
Construction of the Maison de l'Algérie in the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris

Location
France, Paris 14e

Tender
Public

Surface
9 300 m2

Team
l’AUC, architect (project manager)
Projectiles, architect (associate)
Sotec, all trades engineering
D.J. AMO, construction economist
Daniel Commins, acoustician
Michaël Batalla, visual poetry

Client
La Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris (CIUP)

Stage
COMPETITION 2007