Wavy apartment building balconies with greenery

This French apartment building is equipped with wavy balconies that extend the living space and create a fascinating visual effect from outside. Each balcony alternates wavy parts with the balcony below it, providing residents a surprising amount of vertical space and creating a fun look for the facade.

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Wavy apartment building facade
Wavy apartment building view out

The idea behind the project was to call to mind stacked villas which are wide open to the environment. By adding the wrap-around balconies to the inexpensive housing units, the architects – ECDM Architectes – effectively doubled the living space of each unit.

Each level of the building features a slightly different floor plan so that no residence overlooks another. This careful planning gives the housing development’s residents a high level of privacy – something that most apartment balconies just can’t offer.

Wavy apartment building balconies

The terraces are outfitted in perforated metal balustrades which let in plenty of light. Thin green garden equipment cupboards separate one balcony from the next. From the street, these cupboards create vertical green lines that run up the height of the buildings.

As the residents have begun to plant vegetation on their balconies, the plants have created the appearance of the entire building being a huge vertical terraced garden.

Wavy apartment building in landscape

More from the architects

“The idea was to extend the surface of the apartments by balconies representing a minima 50% of the living area with a drastic construction cost : 1350 € / sqm. The project implements objective values where all the constructive and architectural aspects are drafted for their practical value and their economic performance. The façade serve as an expression of a living place whose alternate sinusoids movements are realized in order to allow an optimal amount of sunlight despite cantilevers up to 3.20 meters of depth. Therefore, in front of each living room, the amplitude of the balcony is maximum and refines in front of the rooms or secondary rooms.”

Wavy apartment building looking up

“Dwellings are alternated floor by floor in order to never superimpose living rooms. Then despite very generous dimensions of balconies, there is no mask effect between apartments. The unique qualities of the location provide an opportunity to re-think the creation of a link between a landscape and settlements patterns.”