The Tour Commune
Completed in the Masséna-Bruneseau sector of the 13th arrondissement for Paris Habitat, the Tour Commune houses 220 student residences for the Crous de Paris. Designed by Vincent Lavergne Architecture Urbanisme and Atelier WOA under a design-build contract led by Bouygues, it is the first low-carbon tower developed by a public social housing provider within Paris. The project embraces height, 50 metres, and a hybrid concrete and timber construction system that contributes to decarbonising construction. The ambition is simple: architectural and constructive innovation should not be reserved for the privileged.
In Paris, the tower as an urban form has always met with reluctance. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Eiffel Tower and the Tour Montparnasse made height a symbol of power and progress. With the Tour Commune, height becomes synonymous with restraint and social justice. Built on artificial ground reclaimed over infrastructure, the tower draws on its diamond-shaped plot to create a dynamic form. The corners are put to work to enhance living conditions and views: the corner rooms become cockpits, like cabins set in the sky.
Its height is carried by a hybrid timber-concrete post-and-beam structure braced by a core. CLT floor slabs and timber-frame façades protected by a metal skin complete the construction system. Timber appears within the depth of the façade, where it is best protected. "It is at the scale of the pedestrian, not the pigeon, that the tower reveals itself to be made of wood," the architects explain. Each floor was erected in seven days; the façades were prefabricated off-site, with windows integrated.
At mid-height, 25 metres, the historic Parisian height limit, the Grande and Petite Commune host the shared spaces, extended by a large south-facing terrace. Stepped balconies, acting as cool islands and supports for biodiversity, are set out there. The structure frees up large floor plates for the laundry, study rooms and shared kitchen. In the rooms, maritime-pine canopy beds seem suspended before the panorama.
Nine years separated the 2017 competition from completion. The Notre-Dame fire, lockdown, the 2021 timber doctrine and the war in Ukraine required constant technical and regulatory adjustment: concrete vertical elements, a thick façade against fire spread, short-span timber suited to the tight grid of the student units. To anticipate the coming decline in the student population, reversibility was built in from the outset: the post-and-beam grid, a 2.90-metre floor height and slabs that can be opened without structural rework will allow new programmes to be accommodated.
