In Montreuil, France, UR architecture – urbanisme completed a mixed-use project on a former industrial site divided into as many private plots as there were existing buildings.

UR is a Paris and Bordeaux based office for architecture and urbanism. The office was founded in 2019 by Chloé Valadié and Gaétan Brunet, and their work ranges from small scale projects to urban and strategic studies for private companies, public and national institutions.

The project takes place on the site of a small 140 sqm warehouse landlocked between permanent constructions which have already been converted into dwellings and workshops.

The project offers a production space on the ground floor and two 55 sqm apartments upstairs that take advantage of the particular conditions of the plot.

The project offers a production space on the ground floor and two 55 sqm apartments upstairs that take advantage of the particular conditions of the plot.

The first one offers a view on the courtyard shared between the different lots resulting from the parcel division of the former factory. The second, more introverted, is organised around a patio and benefits from pre-existing openings.

The roof is accessible and offers an active space overhanging above the volumes inherited from the factory.

Here, an aromatic garden serves the kitchen on the ground floor.

The location of the project, in a hollow of the factory, practically prevents any visibility from the common courtyard. The project focuses then on maximising interior qualities for the benefit of residential and productive uses.

The new metal structure offers an industrial extension to the writing of the volumes of the factory. The project therefore presents itself as an in-between, a fragment in permanent mutation, a state in the making, opened to being taken further by its inhabitants.

It is simple and offers "permanent conditions" anticipating the possible evolutions of the building: addition of a 2nd floor, union of the two apartments, extension to neighboring land…