In the immediate vicinity of Place d'Italie, in this part of the 13th arrondissement in Paris, France, the RATP has a large maintenance site for the metro trains of line 5.

Immediately adjacent to this industrial enclave surrounded by high walls, Édouard Albert's Croulebarbe tower rises up.

The "Italy" site is composed of large workshops and a 1950s office building to be transformed by DATA into a line command post for the RATP and into social housing.

The "Italy" site is composed of large workshops and a 1950s office building to be transformed by DATA into a line command post for the RATP and into social housing.

The quality of the structural framework of this building makes it possible to envisage little modification of the existing building and to limit interventions to the vertical circulation cores, to the extension volumes and to the facades.

The principle of the new facades is simple, alternating large mineral and glazed horizontals that guarantee a maximum of light and view for the future inhabitants. The extensions are made of metal structure, as light as possible.

These extensions are of two kinds. On the workshop side, they consist of a thickening of the volume to accommodate kitchens and winter gardens. On the roof, two levels are added, set back from the facade, providing distant views of the Parisian horizon.

The Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens is a public company that manages the Paris Metro network and other urban and interurban transport in the French capital and its metropolitan area.

Founded in 2010 in Paris by Léonard Lassagne and Colin Reynier, DATA operates in the fields of architecture, urban planning, design and research.

The building must indeed remain at constant weight so as not to be forced to resume the foundations.