{"id":528487,"date":"2026-04-13T12:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T12:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528487\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T12:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T12:50:10","slug":"nicolas-laisne-creates-ship-like-vatea-apartment-block-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528487\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicolas Laisn\u00e9 creates ship-like Vatea apartment block in France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local studio Nicolas Laisn\u00e9 Architectes<\/a> has completed Vatea, a riverside apartment block<\/a> in France<\/a> with a sleek, skinny form that references ship design. <\/p>\n

Located in Huningue, where the borders of France, Germany and Switzerland meet, the nine-storey block provides 20 individual and co-living<\/a> apartments targeted at students and young professionals.<\/p>\n

\"ExteriorNicolas Laisn\u00e9 Architectes has completed a riverside apartment block in France<\/p>\n

Taking cues from its riverside location, Nicolas Laisn\u00e9 Architectes<\/a> said it considered the building as a “ship set along the riverbank”, designing a streamlined form and a series of deck-style terraces overlooking the Rhine.<\/p>\n

“The project is based on the idea of creating a co-living building open to an international population, at the intersection of France, Germany and Switzerland,” studio founder Nicolas Laisn\u00e9 told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

\"VateaIts sleek, skinny form references ship design<\/p>\n

“It is conceived as an inhabited structure in direct relationship with the Rhine, evoking the image of a ship set along the riverbank \u2013 both anchored in its site and oriented towards the landscape,” Laisn\u00e9 added.<\/p>\n

“The defining gesture is the mid-level terrace, conceived as a ship deck overlooking the Rhine, offering panoramic views and creating a central shared space.”<\/p>\n

\"TerraceDeck-style terraces overlook the Rhine<\/p>\n

The wedge-shaped plan of Vatea tapers towards the north, ending in a curved, prow-like point that contains a spiral staircase on the lower levels and a stack of terraces above.<\/p>\n

Bookending this plan are shared living, kitchen and dining spaces that benefit from expansive curved glass facades, while in between is a mixture of collective apartments and private studios with their own kitchenettes.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Ellen<\/p>\n

Hacker Architects designs stepped senior housing to “balance togetherness with independence”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Slicing through the midsection of the building is a large terrace that wraps the western river-facing edge of the block and projects out over the road below.<\/p>\n

This communal level is centred around a double-height shared living and dining room wrapped by fully glazed walls, which sits alongside fitness and cinema spaces.<\/p>\n

The slender building has a concrete column-and-beam structure. Its facades are clad in corrugated metal and finished with a screen of thin, vertical steel elements, all of which are finished in white to enhance its streamlined appearance.<\/p>\n

\"InteriorThe communal level is centred around a shared living and dining room<\/p>\n

“This system provides both strength and flexibility. External insulation ensures high thermal performance, while the facades are clad in a metal envelope, chosen for its lightness and durability,” Laisn\u00e9 explained.<\/p>\n

“Vertical metal elements also contribute to the fa\u00e7ade composition, filtering light and reinforcing the building’s visual lightness,” he added.<\/p>\n

\"SharedThe interiors benefit from expansive curved glass facades<\/p>\n

Based in Paris, Laisn\u00e9 founded his eponymous practice in 2005. Previous projects by the studio include an “inside out” office building in Nice designed with Dimitri Roussel,<\/a> which features a similarly lightweight concrete-and-steel structure.<\/p>\n

The studio also collaborated with Sou Fujimoto on a tree-like tower in Montpellier<\/a>, which features balconies that fan out like leaves.<\/p>\n

The photography is by Cyrille Weiner<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local studio Nicolas Laisn\u00e9 Architectes has completed Vatea, a riverside apartment block in France with a sleek, skinny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[17295,6225,6485,6486,55263,1120,96,819,4658,183153,11127,40339,40340,150834,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-528487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-apartments","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-co-living-and-co-housing","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-france","16":"tag-housing","17":"tag-nicolas-laisnu00e9-associu00e9s","18":"tag-residential-architecture-and-interiors","19":"tag-sectionall","20":"tag-sectionarchitecture","21":"tag-sectionexclusives","22":"tag-uk","23":"tag-united-kingdom","24":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}