Overlooking the Bassin du Roy and the Bassin du Commerce, in the heart of Auguste Perret’s rebuilt city centre and classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, close to Niemeyer’s Volcano and in dialogue with the city’s landmarks, Hôtel de Ville and Saint-Joseph Church, the Alta tower is part of a history in which architectural adventure has shaped and identified Le Havre as a city apart.
Revealing the specific features of this context, it is a link between two territories moving towards each other, one with the other: the city and the sea. Its expressive architectural style makes it a new part of the skyline of the city-port.
The plot is located at a nodal point in the history of the reconstruction of Le Havre and its built form. This strategic position, at the junction of the two urban grids of the general plan proposed by Perret, gives the building a singular character and geometry.
Benefiting from great visibility and an exceptional view of the docks, the tower offers residents in the surrounding area a view of various scales, as well as a variety of places for residents to enjoy. Playing on the idea of movement, background and multiplicity, its volume accompanies the different scales of the city in an interplay of levels.
Dialogues
Our project is part of a city where heritage and modernity blend and feed off each other. It is rooted in the world architectural history of the 20th century and invents a new typology. We had to write a new score in keeping with the two sacred monsters.
Our project therefore combines the essential elements characteristic of each: the form and sensuality of Niemeyer, the grid and order of Perret, with concrete being the material common to all three projects. The concrete mesh embraces the body of the building, accentuating the twisting and turning that accompanies its upward transformation.
Living here means understanding and learning about the city that surrounds us. Appreciating the scale and richness of the urban fabric that makes up this exceptional site. Here, residents become aware not only of the heritage of the city unfolding before their eyes, but above all of the extraordinary possibilities of this wider area.
As well as being a landmark building, the Alta Tower also aims to give each individual dwelling its own unique character. The open floor plan means that each type of dwelling can be configured «on demand». This means that you can personalise your future home right from the design stage. Here, the issue of housing is a vehicle for values of use, typological diversity, dynamism and optimism. Embracing the future with ambition, the building will be a demonstrator of vertical housing in an urban environment.
Invention here is part of a historical continuity, not of a style or a dogma, but of a state of mind. Le Havre is Perret, Niemeyer, but above all, it is the spirit of modernity, of an architectural adventure on the scale of its original history: a city built to set out and discover new territories.
Innovation
The Alta tower is a unique building designed around the elements that make up its site. The twisted geometry of the project is the building’s distinctive feature, a specific twisted morphology marked by pivoting balconies and inclined posts that give the building a unique character.
A profusion of reinforced concrete grids that unfold in an upward movement, the interweaving of prefabricated elements on the facade…
The design of the project as a whole signals a relationship with uniqueness that is more a work of art than a standardised housing building. The building’s innovation lies in this combination of a strong architectural approach and innovative construction methods and materials.
A true urban landmark, this project is a new landmark in the city, and affirms the modernity characteristic of Le Havre’s skyline. Its distinctive design has been a vector for innovation in all aspects of building production. The creation of its singular morphology called for in-depth structural studies, resulting in the use of exceptional construction methods for a residential building. Source by Hamonic+Masson & Associés.
- Location: Le Havre, France
- Architect: Hamonic+Masson & Associés
- Principal: Gaëlle Hamonic, Jean-Christophe Masson, Marie-Agnès de Bailliencourt
- Project manager: César Silva Urdaneta
- Fluids engineering office: BET Boulard 14
- Electrical engineering office: BET Bader
- Engineering office: Legendre Ingénierie
- Group Manager Execution Division: Matthieu Delandhuy
- Structural engineer project manager: Nacer Berrada
- Client: SOGEPROM
- Living surface: 6 000 m2
- Cost: 15,8 M€ HT
- Year: November 2023
- Photographs: Courtesy of Hamonic+Masson & Associés
