Toulouse: elevations that do not please everyone
Creating housing in the city center and instilling a bit of contemporary in the pink brick facades of Toulouse, it is possible thanks to the elevations, these extensions in height of one or two floors of an old building.
You have probably already noticed one of these apartments on the top floor, often with a terrace sometimes adorned with columns. And some may have even dreamed of living in these accommodations inserted in the heart of the city but without neighbors above and with, often, a nice view and space to dine on the balcony, on summer evenings.
The city center of Toulouse is full of these penthouses, it is the architectural term referring to Athens, describing an apartment in the upper part which crowns a construction.
Most often slightly set back from the facade it dominates, it is placed above an entablature or a cornice and has been added to the original building. A development that allows a building to be enlarged, sometimes to accommodate children who have grown up above the home where they grew up. We then speak of family elevation. Sometimes to create one or more additional accommodations, rather high-end, that the owner or investor will sell or rent at a high price.
“Soft Intensification”
An extension favored by the first PLUiH (local inter-municipal housing plan), which in 2019 set the rules for urban planning in the Toulouse metropolis. This PLUiH was canceled in 2021 and we returned to the 2012 local urban plan (PLU) for Toulouse, which is less permissive.
But Annette Laigneau, the deputy mayor of Toulouse in charge of town planning and heritage, remains rather favorable to this type of development, in the current context, which prohibits any artificialization of new soils and favors “gentle intensification while allowing “to instil a bit of modernity” in the city center, according to the vice-president of Toulouse Métropole: “We can proceed to an elevation provided that the foundations and the structure of the old building allow it”, specifies the elected, “it is the height authorized in the sector concerned which counts, in fact. Sometimes, we authorize an elevation which must align with the existing heights, sometimes we prefer the demolition of the building for a new reconstruction, in particular in the territories of urban renewal “(areas near metro stations for example, Editor’s note).
Extension under conditions
The elevation is especially indicated in the old hypercentre, delimited by the belt of the boulevards, and in certain suburbs. But under certain conditions.
“In the remarkable heritage sector (SPR), the former protected sector, where each building has been analyzed by our services, we do not raise just anywhere”, Annette Laigneau, “this should not hide a perspective or heritage view; for a protected built element (EBP), for example, that is to say a remarkable building protected in the PLUIiH, which cannot be destroyed, it can only be modified. Depending on the sector, or if the building concerned is less than 500 m from a classified building or site, the opinion of the architect of the Buildings of France is downloaded, ”adds the elected official.
If the elevation project directly concerns a listed building, “it also requires the authorization of the Drac (regional directorate of cultural affairs), whose recommendations must be followed”, further specifies Annette Laigneau. The raising, which is interesting, cannot therefore be applied systematically.
Controversy in the Chalets district
These elevations are sometimes disputed. Thus, the Gazette des Chalets, newspaper of the association of the district, echoed, recently, three elevations which displease the residents of this very residential district. Rue de la Balance, the gray metal elevation on two levels, with openings of unequal size, strikes: “The neighbors are protesting […] passers-by are shocked to lose their usual aesthetic landmarks,” writes Alain Roy. Two other projects worry the inhabitants, one rue Saint-Hilaire (permit refused by the town planning department) and the other at the corner of rue d’Orléans and rue Jany. The contemporary forms and the gray of these projects shock, here too, the defenders of pink brick, moreover rather yellow or earth. “The association and the inhabitants of the district know how to appreciate the marriage of the old and the contemporary” assures the Gazette. Tastes and colors…