Cristinacce Apartments

Cristinacce Apartments
© Julien Kerdraon

CRISTINACCE APARTMENTS

Orma Architettura

CATEGORY
Apartments

PHOTOGRAPHS
Julien Kerdraon

AREA
280 m²

YEAR
2017

LOCATION
Cristinacce, France

Text description provided by architect.

The project at hand is the rebuilding and reorganisation of a ruin in the small village of Cristinacce, Corsica, to create three city-owned apartments. The project follows three axes:

Firstly, there is a social aspect to it as not only it is city-owned, but the typologies are different to respond to the diversity of situations within Corsican villages.

Cristinacce Apartments
© Julien Kerdraon
Cristinacce Apartments
© Julien Kerdraon

Secondly, you find an environmental angle as it is a now pressing matter for the whole island. This building is dimmed “low-carbon”, which makes it the first of its kind in Corsica.

Finally, the architectural aspect of the project, of course, lies in the form of a contemporary construction that fits the needs of modern life but in the midst of old, traditional fabric, ever-present in our small villages.

There is an act of resistance to the approach of building three social dwellings in a small village as it aims also at fighting against the depopulation inland. Offering high-quality dwellings for lower a population with a lower income is even greater.

The project is characterised by a structure and a surface mainly wooden-made, thus really setting the building in our times. There was also the purpose of further integrating the modern volumes and shape, considering the material unity and sobriety of the façades.

Cristinacce Apartments
© Julien Kerdraon
Cristinacce Apartments
© Julien Kerdraon

Furthermore, the architecture of the building allows us to create wide openings, necessary to meet the environmental standards as well as framing the views on the mountains afar.

Advocating the merits of a wood channel, industry, in Corsica could no longer be necessary as it is a material that you don’t only find in abundance across the island, but it also is a wood of the highest quality.

Nevertheless, we still wanted to champion the local craftsmanship and point out the fact that despite wood being in plenty, difficulties in building with such a simple material can still arise because of the lack of drying units in Corsica.

Cristinacce Apartments
© Julien Kerdraon
Cristinacce Apartments
© Julien Kerdraon

Indeed, the majority of the wood being used has to be dried and transformed, either on the mainland or in Italy.

The project is looking into providing immediate answers to the issues at hand. In order to do this, the building methods we have looked into had to be precise and to integrate the fact that the wood we would use would not reach the required 13% humidity rate, as is normally the case in all traditional wooden structures.

Doing so, we avoided shipping the wood on the mainland, lowering the carbon footprint of the project at the same time.

Cristinacce Apartments
© Julien Kerdraon
Cristinacce Apartments
© Julien Kerdraon

Hence, in being very demanding with regard to the whole process, we wanted to ensure that the project would be exemplary in all aspects. This project is socially and environmentally sound, promoting endemic resources (the wood used in Laricio pine tree) and participate to repopulate the inland parts of Corsica.


Cristinacce Apartments
Ground floor plan
Cristinacce Apartments
First floor plan


Cristinacce Apartments
Section
Cristinacce Apartments
Section


Cristinacce Apartments
Elevation
Cristinacce Apartments
Elevation