LAN architecture brings Strasbourg’s urban saint to life with a palette of pastels
LAN architecture is completing its development of a Saint-Urbain block in celebration of color in the star zone of Strasbourg. located between the holy-urban cemetery and the park of the star, the new district appears as an urban island, a vibrant and fanciful emergence of the horizontality of the neudorf landscape. on a local scale, the project activates a major link between the city center and the Neudorf district. on a regional scale, it introduces a new stage in the “two shores” urbanization project, which extends to kehl in germany. Established in this strategic position, the urban ambition of the new euro-metropolis is embodied in eight buildings, giving form to more than 21,500 m² of a mixed real estate program, comprising 178 housing units, a hotel, offices and commercial premises.
image © charly grind
LAN architectureL’îlot Saint-Urbain takes advantage of the isolated site to assert its own identity and generate a new intensity. it is an urban block which is based on a global and autonomous program. emerging as an environment of flux, the seven volumes of the new district rise above an active street level welcoming food shops and essential services, distributed around a garden. it is a peaceful and lively atmosphere for work and is ideally located for city tourism – island, but perfectly connected to the rest of the city.
image © charly grind
gathered around a common garden, the eight volumes of LAN architecture’s holy-urban project make up a dense and compact island. the adjusted spacing of the blocks contributes to a neighborhood domesticity and encourages an atmosphere of belonging. between the visible and the hidden, both the intimacy of family life and the urbanity of collective life are played out. the architecture here guarantees a sociability of proximity while opening onto the urban landscape and metropolitan horizons. it is the experience of this specific and extremely qualitative scale relation that is proposed, from an attentive reflection on the window and its repetition.
image © charly grind
LAN celebrates a vibrant color palette to introduce an identity to the block. on the scale of the city, the choice of colors places the Saint ‑ Urbain islet back in the history of Strasbourg. the hotel’s brown refers to the historic monuments of the city, to the neighboring city of music and buildings on the Place de la Bourse as well as to the cathedral, built in sandstone from the Vosges. olive yellow is a pastel found in the historic center, especially in the petite france district. color also functions as a signal, especially in the case of the tower, whose totem effect is reinforced by its dark blue.
image © charly grind
at the scale of the block, the interaction of colors is played out by complementary selection and by distance from the shots. this interaction helps to generate a peaceful atmosphere while bringing urban qualities to the public space. the pink is taken from the neighboring facades of the neudorf district – the greens, both light and dark, are chosen for their opposing tones. the public space becomes a colorful in-between. the blue of the sky is reminiscent of a small building adjoining the cemetery. gray, in its interaction with other colors, leads them to take on different tones depending on the point of view.
image © lorenzo zandri
image © lorenzo zandri
image © lorenzo zandri
project information:
Project title: urban holy block
architecture: LAN architecture
site: strasbourg, france
completion: 2021
photography: © charly crush, © lorenzo zandri