Accommodation at Gare de Lyon-Daumesnil

The Gare de Lyon-Daumesnil area in Paris is bounded by Rue de Rambouillet, Rue de Charolais, Boulevard de Bercy and the Paris Sud-Est railway line.

When the Gare de Lyon train station was enlarged and extended in the 1930s, the locomotive repair and construction workshops on this site were replaced by freight company buildings and a mail sorting office. These brick-and-iron buildings are still standing today and attest to an industrial heritage that gives the site a strong identity. 

The figurehead building for the new district is aligned with the public space. A courtyard was created in the middle of the building to introduce light and create dual aspect apartments facing both onto the street and the centre of the building.

This triangular building with its central courtyard was directly inspired by Parisian buildings in the 12^th District of Paris, for example those on Rue Corzatier and Rue Chaligny.

Economy of means was a guiding principle in this development. The apartments are designed with a minimum number of load-bearing points, thanks to a regular 3.5 metre grid spanning from facade to facade. The regular grid and the elimination of internal columns allow for a certain construction logic that gives the apartments genuine scalability.

The floor plans are simple, clear, and do not definitively divide the units into types.