THE DENSIFICATION OF AN URBAN AREA ALONG THE RIVER
Ilot Queyries Apartment Building in Bordeaux, France
MVRDV
Ilot Queyries is a courtyard apartment building providing 308 homes, commercial space and a rooftop restaurant in an intimate urban setting with plenty of light, air and a large collective green space. Located to the east of the River Garonne in Bordeaux, the building is part of a new neighbourhood of four buildings masterplanned by MVRDV alongside Joubert Architecture. The project is envisaged as a test-bed for the principles of the neighbouring Bastide-Niel masterplan, also designed by MVRDV, which aims to combine the virtues of Bordeaux’s UNESCO World Heritage historic city with the density, ecology, light and comfort of the modern city. Ilot Queyries adopts the same approach as the Bastide-Niel masterplan: the building fills the site to its boundaries, lending an intimate feeling to the streetscape, while the roofs are arranged into carefully calibrated slopes to provide maximum ventilation, daylight and sun to the building itself and to its neighbours.
