In Maxéville, within the Grand Nancy agglomeration, ABC Studio delivers 20 collective social housing units for seniors on the Haut-du-Lièvre plateau, anticipating the demolition of the Tour panoramique in the framework of the ANRU (French National Agency for Urban Renewal). Founded in 2009 and based in Nancy, the French–Korean practice led by Doonam Back and Yann Caclin rehoused 20 seniors in the Aulnes neighborhood, at the edge of the forest of the same name, in a building that is both a residential complex and a collective home.
Known for the housing blocks drawn by Bernard Zehrfuss overlooking Nancy and its panoramic tower—now living its last winter—the plateau sets the context for a project whose typologies, from T1bis to T3max, follow the footprint and domesticities of the former tower dwellings.
The units are organized around a large shared vertical greenhouse, a winter-garden-like space rising to the rooftop terrace, from which residents will enjoy views over Nancy while keeping an eye on their neighborhood.
Aligned with the treetops of the surrounding forest, the residence affirms a human scale designed to respond to residents’ needs for sociability. Using raw concrete where asphalt once lay, the construction reuses elements from the Tour panoramique—bathroom components and guardrails—embodying ABC’s effort to propose restorative answers in these residential landscapes, facing the brutality of long-standing destruction of the inhabitants’ living environment.
