8 Stripes, 1 Rectangle and 1 Circle

BOARD (Bureau of Architecture, Research, and Design) in collaboration with STAR strategies + architecture

Short description

8 Stripes, 1 Rectangle and 1 Circle

The roof garden with “8 Stripes, 1 Square and 1 Circle” is a large common terrace located in the residential complex “START” in Ivry-sur-Seine in Greater Paris, France.
START is composed of 5 buildings ranging from 12 to 18 floors containing 288 experimental apartments, and 14 commercial spaces. The total surface area of the housing project is 22,863 m², of which 19,700 m² is residential, including 34% social housing.

Due to the high density, START includes 2,600 m² of public space on the ground floor and a total of 2.119 m² of common terraces and roof gardens at different heights. One of the roof gardens is “8 Stripes, 1 Rectangle and 1 Circle”.

Our project is located on the roof of the commercial spaces on the socles of two of START’s towers. The roof garden is enclosed between these two buildings and is shared among their residents.

The 400 m² large garden is strategically divided into 8 stripes of "possibilities" on which different plantings can grow next to each other on different heights creating a “plant cascade”. As the stripes do not contain the same plants over time, and they can continuously change, the project will remain characterized by a high level of flexibility and a permanent "unfinished" state.

The 8 different stripes can grow diverse plants such as orchards, edible plants, or lush vegetations. Fruit trees, such as cherry trees and apple trees, will offer freely accessible fruit for the residents providing a diverse range of colors when flowering in spring.

The stripes of the garden are not only designed as spaces of possibilities, but also to create a rich experience while crossing from one tower to the next, traversing different sequences like in a film. A particular path for this experience is created as a diagonal grass passage that crosses the parallel stripes.
The roof garden creating spaces suitable for relaxation, picnics or games. In order to experience the garden's stripe sequence not only while walking, but also in a quieter situation and while sitting, two benches, one rectangular and one circular, are placed as “pockets” directly in their middles. This creates more intimate areas within the garden. Sitting on one of the benches one can almost completely disappear into the sea of surrounding plants on the “plant cascade”.

The presence of the roof garden provides a much-needed space and permeability between the volumes of the START project. In the midst of the densely packed program of START, this common planted terrace offers many qualities to its residents: spaces to relax, socialise and to enjoy the unimpeded views towards the Seine, the new Lise Meitner Square below, as well as the newly created commercial street. Its oblong shape allows not only for great views on both sides of the garden, but creates several different zones for relaxation too.

The vegetations of the roof garden will be planted by the residents, which will help to improve the biodiversity of this outdoor space. An association specialized on urban agriculture will guide them during the first years and organize activities to animate the garden. The plant palettes will be chosen by the residents. Planting packs will be offered for sale, whether they are simple packets of seeds or perennial plants in pots. These packs will make thematic plantings possible creating areas for maintenance-free honey meadows, perennial aromatics, annual aromatics, or young shoots in a mixture, to give some examples.

The vegetation system combines drainage with the use of clay balls. The underlaying layer of the garden has an average thickness of 20 cm of light substrate that is composed of pozzolan, crushed clay balls, and compost. The height of the substrate will be punctually brought up to 60 cm to allow the planting of small trees in the planting containers.

(The provided images show the finalisation of the garden. The plantations displayed in the pictures are not completed and the benches were not finished).