LAN Architecture designs pastel-colored housing in Strasbourg
Parisian studio LAN Architecture has created a collection of ice cream-colored buildings called Nolistra in Strasbourg, France, which revolve around a common garden.
Located between the Saint-Urbain cemetery and the Etoile park, the buildings are each of different colors, ranging from dark grayish blue to pale pistachio green and candy pink.
Nolistra sits on an “urban island” which is surrounded by two roads, between the historic district of Strasbourg and a 1960s extension of the district.
In order to create an identity for the development, which includes housing as well as commercial space, a hotel and offices, the studio looked at the surrounding colorful buildings.
“From the start of the project, we were looking for a form and a strategy that could express continuity and at the same time a strong identity in itself”, Local architecture network (LAN) Architecture co-founder Umberto Napolitano told Dezeen.
![Exterior of the subdivision](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2021/06/nolistra-by-lan-architects-strasbourg_dezeen_2364_col_9-852x1136.jpg)
“We tried to use what the city already offered us, and Strasbourg is a city extremely defined by colors”, explained Napolitano.
“The idea was to use color as a tool that could express continuity with the elements that were already there – on one side there is a pink building which was one of the first we had to relate to, and there is this tiny architecture of the cemetery which is blue, then there is a square made of [red] Pierre de Bordeaux, “he said.
“So little by little, the neighborhood started to inform about the project.”
![Grid facades of Nolistra buildings](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2021/06/nolistra-by-lan-architects-strasbourg_dezeen_2364_col_5-852x1136.jpg)
The residential part of the development consists of 178 apartments spread over six of the buildings, including an 18-story dark blue tower.
Another building will house a hotel and the last block will house office space.
All of the blocks are united with a repeating facade design that features symmetrical recessed windows grouped into sets of four.
![Windows on the facades of the Strasbourg housing estate](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2021/06/nolistra-by-lan-architects-strasbourg_dezeen_2364_col_8-852x1136.jpg)
“If you go to the historic center, what the succession of different urbanization areas has in common is a strong variety of colors and a kind of light pattern of the windows,” said Napolitano.
“The windows express a level of abstraction, so when you see the addition of all these windows it becomes texture, in a sense, but when you get close you see the detail, the shadow and the light.”
![Development of the municipal garden of Nolistra](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2021/06/nolistra-by-lan-architects-strasbourg_dezeen_2364_col_7-852x1136.jpg)
The Nolistra island is built around a common garden and the buildings also have roof terraces. The studio chose to use plants adapted to the region and can be found in the cemetery on one side of the development and in the park on the other.
“The garden has evolved a lot,” Napolitano explained.
“At first it was something more domestic but it has evolved, little by little, to become something which in five years will be extremely wild,” he added.
“It was interesting because it’s not always easy to convince someone in a mainly real estate project to have a garden that you don’t have complete control over.
![Loggias in a French building](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2021/06/nolistra-by-lan-architects-strasbourg_dezeen_2364_col_0-852x1065.jpg)
Nolistra, which the studio called “the first architectural response to the public health crisis we have been experiencing since March 2020”, was designed to have open interiors with lots of natural light.
The apartments all have loggias or winter gardens, which can be used as additional rooms in summer.
“Each apartment has an additional room that you can keep as outdoor space or decide to close,” Napolitano said. “The windows are already there – now it has been delivered as an outdoor loggia which you can close in the winter.”
![Buildings with pastel facades in France](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2021/06/nolistra-by-lan-architects-strasbourg_dezeen_2364_col_10-852x1065.jpg)
The studio also focused on creating dense development that would have a sense of community, but not create the feeling that people live on top of each other.
“Color is the most important element, but a lot of effort has been put into flexibility and how to generate a very dense neighborhood,” said Napolitano.
“Using density for equality, like sharing resources and a sense of community, without having that botched density where people are too close to each other and have too much in common.”
![Pedestrian walking outside pink and yellow house](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2021/06/nolistra-by-lan-architects-strasbourg_dezeen_2364_col_2-852x1065.jpg)
The housing part of the complex includes free, assisted or intermediate ownership, as well as social housing.
“It’s an even more interesting project because of the problem of social housing – how to create a community without exclusion? said Napolitano. “This project has a mixed population and a mix of uses.
The photograph is by Charly grouse unless otherwise stated.
LAN Architecture has already created a French town hall with a perforated metal skin and a weathered steel clad prison with a pastel sports field.