Span the whole depth of the building with the structure so that each floor is a single open plate, adaptable to uses that cannot be foreseen.
Pompidou: 48 m clear span between column lines, 13 bays of 12.8 m
Housing à redents
House the population in continuous slabs raised on pilotis and folded back and forth round large open courts, so that every flat looks over the park and the ground runs unbroken beneath the buildings.
The redent (a stepped or indented line, like the trace of a fortification) lets a long building enclose space without enclosing a courtyard. Raised on pilotis, the slab frees the ground for the pedestrian; its roof is a garden; its interior is served by internal streets. The Unité d’habitation at Marseille (1947–52) is one segment of such a slab, built alone.
Related rules
Build the house as a standard skeleton of flat concrete slabs, a few columns set back from the slab edges, and a stair; everything else (walls, windows, partitions) is infill that can be placed freely.
3 slabs + 6 columns + 1 stair
With a concrete frame, a house should stand on pilotis, have a free plan and a free façade, be lit by horizontal ribbon windows, and carry a garden on its flat roof.
pilotis · free plan · free façade · ribbon window · roof garden
Raise the main storey on slender columns so that the ground beneath flows under the building (for circulation, cars, gardens or public space) and the rooms are lifted into light, air and view.
Since columns carry the floors, partitions can be placed wherever the use requires, independent of the structure and different on every storey.
House a whole community in one tall slab: stack duplex flats that run through the block with light on both sides, put shops and services on an interior street half-way up, and give the roof to everyone.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Housing à redents”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/redents-housing. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.