Alta Tower
Le Havre, France
A state of mind.
Overlooking the Bassin du Roy and Bassin du Commerce, at the heart of Auguste Perret’s UNESCO World Heritage rebuilt center, near Niemeyer’s Volcano and in dialogue with the city’s landmarks such as the City Hall and Saint-Joseph Church, the Alta Tower is part of a narrative where architectural adventure has shaped and identified Le Havre as a distinctive city. Revealing the specificities of this context, it serves as a link between two territories reaching out to each other, one with the other: the city and the sea. Its architecturally expressive design establishes it as a new addition to the city-port’s skyline.
Read more: Alta TowerThe plot is located at a nodal point in the history of Le Havre’s reconstruction and its built forms. This strategic position, at the intersection of the two urban grids proposed by Perret’s general plan, gives the building a unique character and geometry. With great visibility and exceptional views of the docks, it provides a variety of perspectives for nearby residents and diverse spaces for occupants. Playing with the idea of movement, background, and multiplicity, its volumetry accompanies different scales in a game of expansion. The concrete mesh embraces the building’s structure, accentuating the twist and torsion that accompany its upward transformation.
Living here means understanding and learning about the surrounding city. It means appreciating the magnitude and richness of the urban fabric that constitutes this exceptional site. Residents are aware not only of the city’s unfolding heritage before their eyes but also of the extraordinary potential of this expanded territory.
Both an emergence and a landmark, the Alta Tower also embodies an ambition for the singularity of each residence. The open plan of the floors allowed for “customized” typologies to be configured. Personalizing one’s future home was possible from the design stage. The housing question here carries values, uses, typological diversity, dynamism, and optimism. Embracing the future with ambition, the building is a demonstration of vertical living in an urban setting.
Rare are the opportunities to confront such a symbolically powerful subject. This project primarily raises the question of our relationship with History, our own history, and heritage. Invention here is part of a historical continuity, not of a style or dogma, but of a mindset. 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 embark on the discovery of new territories.
Program
55 meters
64 apartments + crèche (60 cribs) + car park
Location
Alta Tower
Site Videcoq
Le Havre, France
Schedule
Delivery: December 2023
Client
SOGEPROM
Project management
Lead architect: Hamonic+Masson & Associés
Engineering
Structure: Legendre Ingénierie, MEP engineer: BET Boulard 14 and BET Bader
Renderings
Luxigon
Floor Area
6 000 m²
Cost
15,8 M € HT
Environmental approach
RT 2012 -20%
Bioclimatic design: solar masks according to sunshine on the south-east and south-west facades (awnings on the balconies of the upper levels)
Project compliant with the BBIO Conventional Climate Requirement, with a BbioMax value of 76.30
Aeraulic design according to prevailing winds: windproof aspect of the general geometry and solid railings acting as windbreaks (glazing)
Heating via the district heating network connected to heat production from the Résocéane renewable energy network
