stéphane malka to plug cube extensions into parisian building

old buildings in paris lack energy performance due to the presence of thermal bridges, bad insulation, and the old standard windows. with the idea of optimizing their properties, the co-owners of a building located in the 16th arrondissement of paris commissioned stéphane malka architecture to enlarge their apartments and bring more natural light in. this resulted in a complicated task as the ‘alur law’ — which relaxed planning laws, particularly those for rooftops — does not allow structures to be raised.

in order to solve the constraining laws, stéphane malka has proposed to inhabit the façades by extending the dwellings on the ground floor using cube boxes as well as hanging gardens along them with bow-windows, balconies, and loggias of variable dimensions. the structure of the boxes, made of bio-sourced wood, allows them lightness and great flexibility of implementation on site. plugged to the existing façade of the building, the accumulation of extensions divides the energy consumption of the building by 4, and classifies the rehabilitation of the building with an average energy consumption of 45KWh / 2 / year.

the project — called plug-in city 75’ — is therefore transformed and adapted to the real needs of its inhabitants. the ground-floor accommodation stretches towards the inner garden. these extensions allow the inhabitants of the 1st floor to benefit from large private terraces opened to the sky. each cube allows two levels of extensions: one covered and one open on its top floor. both private and common interstitial terraces are generated by default, in negative of the loggias.

‘in today’s architectures, the mutation of cities must be built on existing heritage. to para-site the city, and literally, lean back against it, healing the wounds of the city and its heritage in a logic of transformation. by superposition, addition, and extension of the built heritage, rather than the categorical tabula rasa.’ – stepháne malka architecture.