5_DiscoverBenelux_Issue18_June_2015_Q9_Scan Magazine 1 26/05/2015 16:24 Page 41
Discover Benelux & France | Special Theme | Architecture and Urbanism
Where before what For Parisian architects inSpace International, ecological considerations are vital. But their environmental approach is about much more than energy, for them every site’s individual context informs what’s to be built there. TEXT: MARTIN PILKINGTON | PHOTOS: INSPACE INTERNATIONAL
When founding partners Marta Mendonça and Gonzalo Galindo joined forces in 2003 they shared an architectural philosophy that still drives the practice: “Every project starts with understanding the site; its physical surroundings micro and macro; cultural and social contexts. Every site is unique, marked by innumerable differences,” explains Dr Mendonça. Three years after inSpace was founded Mendonça won a prestigious Culture Ministry and French Architectural Institute prize for young architects. Their expanded team now handles a stream of commissions. Evidently the philosophy works. “Our work at Carrières-sous-Poissy on a scheme for 62 social housing apartments illustrates the approach,” she says. “Understanding the area around the site and what we then designed for it has created
a project that reconciles diverse elements in the surrounding landscape. The layout and scale of new structures provides a comfortable transition between small individual houses across the street at one side, where we’ve reinterpreted this typology by including two-storey houses with wooden façades which stand in a common platform with four- and fivestorey blocks facing the other side of the site, where taller collective-housing buildings stand. The space thus achieves harmony and coherence.” Design work for inSpace starts with urban and lifestyle research and detailed dialogues with all stakeholders. Site conditions and client needs then translate into outline plans which, via constant questioning, evolve into a project: the process means a building doesn’t just fit in, but maximises opportunities.
At Sintra in Portugal, inSpace is at the budgeting stage for a stunning hotel complex on a hill surrounded by majestic countryside. Green roofs and wooden and glass façades meld built and natural elements. “We’ve stepped the different structures down the slope simultaneously opening views, enhancing privacy and eliminating shade other than from trees,” she explains. Energy and environmental questions are constant preoccupations for inSpace, such skilful orientation of façades, air circulation and material selection are three of their key energy reduction techniques. Clients are rewarded with elegant and effective buildings; architects with engrossing work: “We don’t produce ‘units’, we participate over time in the revision of the built environment,” she concludes. inspace-architecture.com
Issue 18 | June 2015 | 41