Learning from Renée Gailhoustet: The new Community – Social and Green Living in the City
By Elise Zoetmulder
For me, interior architecture is designing from the human scale, drawing from the smallest to the biggest scale. For all designing disciplines, the future holds challenges like climate change, but also social and societal issues like solitude and ageing populations. How can interior architecture contribute to solutions?
On the 4th of July, the Dag van de Ontwerpkracht took place in Tilburg; a day organized by all the designing disciplines in the Netherlands, to stimulate the societal debate about special quality. With the subject, Now – Soon – Later, there was discussed how the profession can commit for climate challenges like sea level rising, water shortages, but also social-societal challenges solitude, ageing populations and housing shortage.
For the BNI-masterclass ‘The new Community’ I spoke about my analyses of the buildings designed by the French architect Renée Gailhoustet (1929-2023).
Her architecture is best known for the image of green mountains that organically grow into the city. But what she was also good at is designing with a lot of attention to social connection, with a lot of collective and public space. To this day, you can still see in the Le Liegat building how this provides a pleasant home for the residents every day. Le Liegat has 25 studios/owner-occupied homes and collective space in the plinth with 7 floors of 136 social rental properties above.
As an interior architect, I started my analysis by asking how the residents use the building. On the Dag van de Ontwerpkracht, I shared some lessons I learned from the way residents live in Le Liegat. These lessons cross all design disciplines and prove the added value of collaboration.
Living as an enrichment of human life is central in Renée Gailhoustet’s work. In her designs she has a multidisciplinary approach in which urbanism, architecture and interior design are seamlessly combined. She leaves room for surprise and flexibility, allowing residents to make the space their own and promoting social interaction. Her approach reminds us that designs should not only meet technical requirements, but also human needs. Her work is an inspiration to tackle design challenges in a creative and integrated manner, with an eye for both firm and soft aspects that enrich human life.
The four lessons below from Gailhoustet form the core of this design approach:
Gardening at height is possible In the future, we will have to live more in symbiosis with nature to cope with heat stress, biodiversity and soil infiltration. That is why I advocate for more space to be made available in the future, for city residents to actually garden. A self-owned garden, even if you live in high density, ensures good mental health. This project proves that we need to think more carefully about how we facilitate this in new high-rise buildings, since the added value is enormous. The Gailhoustet terraces all have a 30 cm layer of soil, which also forms the step-up from the house. This ensures that your plants are less visible from surrounding homes and that you have a nice view between the plants from the sofa.
Social living without corridors There are hardly any corridors in the residential plans of Gailhoustet. These spaces are often large and can also be used for something else. The shape of the outline of the apartment creates spaces so that the classic room with a door is not always necessary. For example, in the family home the master bedroom is often in the ‘corridor’. That may seem extreme, but she believed that if you live collectively you also grow up as a collective person. Just think of the opposite that is often asked for fancy villas. The parents have their own room with an ensuite master bedroom and the children sleep in a completely different place so that they are not bothered by each other. This way you grow up individualistically, so how do you learn to care for each other? The elaboration in Le Liegat may be extreme, but in a society with challenges such as loneliness and individualism it could also offer a solution. Perhaps a nice compromise would be a smaller children’s bedroom and a larger play area?
Looking (after) at each other Renée’s designs contain many sight lines, both within the home and towards the public space. The hexagonal structure of the building also ensures that the interiors face outwards or inwards. This way, in some apartments, the children’s room can be seen from the living room. The children’s rooms of neighbouring apartments are often next to each other, so children connect with each other much faster. I’ve heard that many best friends have been made this way. You can also always look out onto the street from the main living areas. During my visit and stay I also experienced several times that I met new people this way. Most things seem obvious, but in a design culture where the firm technical aspects can be overwhelming, these soft human aspects of design are forgotten. So let’s give more value in the process to such scenography.
Places for collective use The plinth of the building contains many different spaces that are flexible in use, allowing them to adapt to the needs of the residents. These spaces provide places where residents can meet each other informally, resulting in an involved group of residents in Le Liegat.
By integrating these insights from Renée Gailhoustet, we can enrich the community in urban environments and improve the quality of life. It is an invitation to tackle design challenges with a fresh view, where humanity and nature have a central role.
