Explorations Architecture

Habib Bourguiba Hall

Habib Bourguiba Hall
© Salem Mostefaoui

HABIB BOURGUIBA HALL

Explorations Architecture

ARCHITECT
Lamine Ben Hibet

LEAD ARCHITECT
Benoît Le Thierry d'Ennequin

ARCHITECT, PROJECT DIRECTOR
Claudia Trovati

ARCHITECT, ASSISTANT
Charles Eliot Meyer

TECHNICAL CONSULTANTS
OTE

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
Marti Baron

PHOTOGRAPHS
Salem Mostefaoui

AREA
5846 m²

YEAR
2021

LOCATION
Paris, France

CATEGORY
Student Hall, Dorms, Landmarks & Monuments

Text description provided by architect.

The Habib Bourguiba Hall is the second student residence built by the Fondation de la Maison de Tunisie, which is funded by the Tunisian government.

Habib Bourguiba Hall
© Salem Mostefaoui
Habib Bourguiba Hall
© Salem Mostefaoui

Located in the mythic leafy grounds of Paris’s Cité Internationale Universitaire — a unique concentration of cultures, nature, and architecture —, it allows the foundation to double the number of students it can accommodate.

Our project’s organic form surmounts the difficulties of a site that is very exposed, not only to the elements but also to noise and the gaze. Its external envelope, which protects and unites, is at once a filter and a work of art, a calligraphic abstraction signifying the country it represents, Tunisia.

Counting 200 bedrooms for both students and researchers, the building prioritizes communal spaces that ensure a welcoming and studious atmosphere. A spectacular top-lit atrium federates the whole with its spiraling vertical connections.

Habib Bourguiba Hall
© Salem Mostefaoui
Habib Bourguiba Hall
© Salem Mostefaoui

The building also features a 250-seat auditorium, a tearoom open to the public, a communal kitchen/dining room, and a reading room.

At ground-floor level, the curving façade leads visitors naturally towards the glass-walled entrance hall with its Tunisian-style garden at the rear, which is accessible to the general public.

Inside, the hall of residence wraps around fluid and light-filled atrium, a space of encounter and exchange that students are encouraged to appropriate. The atrium unites all the hall of residence’s spaces, whether communal (dining and lounge areas) or private (the bedrooms), and organizes movement around the building.

Habib Bourguiba Hall
© Salem Mostefaoui
Habib Bourguiba Hall
© Salem Mostefaoui

The internal layout follows the client’s request that public and private zones be kept entirely separate.

The public zone; The entrance hall accesses the building’s three public spaces; the 250-seat auditorium occupies part of the ground floor and the basement; the tearoom is located on the ground floor near the entrance and can be directly accessed from outside; the ornamental garden

The private zone; The main communal spaces — dining room/kitchen, TV lounge, smoking room, laundry — are located on the second storey, as are staff facilities and management offices.

Habib Bourguiba Hall
© Salem Mostefaoui
Habib Bourguiba Hall
© Salem Mostefaoui

A fluid, panoptical, convivial space, the kitchen/dining room wraps around the generous atrium, which forms the beating heart of the hall.

As well as bringing daylight down into the building’s centre, the atrium encourages greater interaction among residents; it allows students to meet and exchange in an informal setting;

Habib Bourguiba Hall
© Salem Mostefaoui
Habib Bourguiba Hall
© Salem Mostefaoui

it avoids the long, dark, monotonous corridors that often blight halls of residence; it makes a social spectacle of the connections between floors thanks to its open stairs; it provides exhibition space for residents.

Fitted with panoramic windows, the bedrooms are equipped with bespoke appointments and furnishings whose curved forms echo the building (bathroom units and wardrobes).

Habib Bourguiba Hall
© Salem Mostefaoui
Habib Bourguiba Hall
© Salem Mostefaoui

Set against the windows, the blonde-wood desks extend ergonomically into benches and then into beds.


Habib Bourguiba Hall
Ground Floor Plan
Habib Bourguiba Hall
First Floor Plan
Habib Bourguiba Hall
Site Plan
Habib Bourguiba Hall
Typical Floor Plan


Habib Bourguiba Hall
North Facade
Habib Bourguiba Hall
Section
Habib Bourguiba Hall
Section
Habib Bourguiba Hall
Section
Habib Bourguiba Hall
Facade

Explorations Architecture
T +33 1 44617058
Explorations Architecture
1 Bis, Cité Paradis 75010 Paris, France