Paris-based studio Hondelatte Laporte Architectes has recently completed the “Day nursery of the Giraffe” a childcare center located in the “triangle” area between the district of the old Sèvres bridge, accomplished in the seventies, and the Trapeze new district in Boulogne-Billancourt, a suburban area of Paris.
The whole district has an undulating skyline. To integrate within the urban total coherence, the project develops a third level. The building is then made up of three graduated strata, morphology which is in the pronunciation of all characteristics of the district: stacking up, earthwork and ramp.
This public equipment expresses the world of small childhood. Idea is to create an event which enlivens the public space by calling the babyish imagination: wild animals invest places. A giraffe which looks like prow easy comes to nibble the layer of the earth sported in its range, while a bear tries to climb the upper floor.
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images © Philippe Ruault