August 07, 1997
In this building containing 93 dwellings and a crèche with space for 80 children, Francis Soler has concretized his recent investigations into the role of light, the impact of materials and the presentation of the image in architecture. The project is persuasive in its treatment of mass, which is compact and at the same time fragmented by terraces and staggered façades but above all bedazzled by the screen-printed glazed envelope that surrounds the building.
Basically it is a simple structure of concrete floor slabs and columns which generate 80 x 14-metre floor areas that can be subdivided as required. The façade draped around this core consists of four layers: internal and external sun protection on either side of storey-high, double-glazed panels. The balconies, which run in an uninterrupted line around the building, recall ship’s railings and form an irregular and shimmering network of metal.
But the project’s true originality lies in the colourful silk-screen prints enamelled on the outer glazed panels. They are computer-processed images that Soler composed in collaboration with Olivier Fontvieille and David Trottin, similar in approach to the collages by the visual artist Roman Cieslewicz. They contain excerpts from The Olympian Feast, the huge fresco in the Palazzo del Tè in Mantua, as well as from more recent visual material. On the one hand these images transform the façade into a kind of gigantic, ever-changing cornice. On the other hand, they breathe new life into the French decorative art tradition by giving the image a certain presence in the residential environment.