The experimental row house development Cité Manifeste aims to provide maximal instead of minimal apartments for all. Of the five architecture teams hired, have done the most radical job of meeting demands for higher capacity and increased leeway for individual appropriation. The architects Lacaton & Vassal used inexpensive industrial products and produced twice the space for the regular price. “On the upper level, a greenhouse construction made of polycarbonate on an exposed-concrete floor provides for ample light at an apartment depth of 18 meters, with only two-thirds being thermally insulated. The remaining area is to be climatically regulated through sliding elements and awnings by the residents themselves, similar to their active participation having been required in conquering the open lofts that were not initially divided into rooms. The raw character of the building eases the furnishing process, and the flexible shiftability of the semitransparent winter gardens allows for visual, though not necessarily acoustic, privacy in the tight housing grid”.
see Angelika Fitz
Athome 