Architects: Taillandier Architectes Associés (TAA Toulouse)
Area: 5,122 m²
Year: 2024
Photography: Roland Halbe, Philippe Rol
Lead Architects: Marinell Van Wyk (Associated Head of Project), Jean-Baptiste Blondel (Deputy Head of Project)
Associated Architect: MR3A
Client: GreenCity Immobilier | Sporting Promotion
Environmental Certification: NF Habitat, Effinature
City: Rue Jean Rodier, Montaudran District, Toulouse
Country: France
Home Spirit by Taillandier Architectes Associés reimagines collective housing through a design that unites architectural precision, environmental consciousness, and human experience. Located in Toulouse’s Montaudran district, this ten-story residential building includes 73 apartments ranging from two to five rooms and forms part of the Toulouse Aerospace ZAC. The design juxtaposes a geometric, transparent base with fluid upper floors that incorporate terraces and planted balconies, producing a façade that is both sculptural and verdant. Certified under NF Habitat and Effinature, Home Spirit promotes community, sustainability, and comfort, setting a new benchmark for high-quality urban living in France.
I am inspired by nature, art, photography, science, sport—anything that creates awe, surprise, or satisfaction. Architecture is a form of expression that transcends mere functionality and draws from the full spectrum of society.
Interview with Marinell Van Wyk of Taillandier Architectes Associés – TAA
The Montaudran district, historically linked to Toulouse’s aviation legacy, is undergoing rapid transformation as part of a wider strategy to accommodate urban growth while maintaining quality of life. Home Spirit occupies a prominent site within this landscape, bordered by the Piste des Géants and the developing multimodal hub of the future metro line. Within this context, Taillandier Architectes Associés sought to design a building that reconciles density with domesticity, crafting a housing model that merges collective efficiency with individual comfort.
The project’s form establishes a clear hierarchy between its base and upper levels. The two-story plinth is composed of orthogonal lines that align with the surrounding urban grid, anchoring the building within the fabric of Montaudran. This base accommodates shared programs and transparent façades that open toward the public realm, fostering permeability between residents and passersby. Above this base, the architecture transitions to curved, softened volumes whose terraces and balconies create a dynamic, multilayered façade animated by greenery and light.
The contrast between the orthogonal base and the rounded upper floors is central to the project’s identity. The composition produces a gentle vertical rhythm that breaks down the building’s scale while maintaining coherence. The terraces, projecting at varying depths, generate shadows and spatial variety, giving the façade a tactile quality that changes throughout the day. This balance of structure and fluidity reflects the architects’ ambition to express movement and vitality within a dense residential context.
Landscape design plays a defining role, integrating architecture and nature into a cohesive whole. Every apartment benefits from generous outdoor spaces, ranging from 16 to 40 square meters, conceived as genuine extensions of interior life. These planted terraces operate as ecological filters and social platforms, where residents experience both privacy and openness. Vegetation climbs along the façades, fills planters, and softens edges, forming a continuous green network that connects the building to its immediate surroundings.
At street level, Home Spirit engages directly with its neighborhood through a sequence of shared facilities designed to enrich community life. The base houses a fitness room, a children’s playroom, and a 120-square-meter communal lounge, all accessible from the public pathways that weave through the site. These amenities reinforce the project’s social dimension, ensuring that the building contributes actively to the collective identity of the district rather than existing as an isolated object.
The architects further enhance social interaction through the treatment of circulation. Open-air walkways on the north façade replace conventional corridors, transforming transitional spaces into communal terraces. Lined with climbing plants and integrated planters, these walkways encourage informal encounters among residents while ensuring natural light and ventilation. This strategy minimizes energy consumption and turns everyday movement through the building into a sensory and social experience.
Within the main volume, the alternating arrangement of duplex and souplex apartments reinterprets the typology of single-family homes in a vertical format. Each residence is accessed through a private walkway, creating the feeling of entering a personal address rather than an anonymous corridor. This layout fosters individuality while supporting cross-ventilation and abundant daylight. The resulting homes balance seclusion with openness, offering spatial qualities rarely found in high-density developments.
Crowning the composition, a collection of rooftop villas embodies the project’s conceptual culmination. These residences are surrounded by continuous terraces, allowing occupants to circulate around their homes and experience panoramic views of Toulouse. The configuration evokes the experience of living in a detached house, yet within a collective framework. The interplay of these villas with the terraces below gives the building a distinctive silhouette and an articulated skyline that contributes to the identity of Montaudran’s emerging urban landscape.
Environmental sustainability underpins the project’s conception and realization. Through NF Habitat and Effinature certifications, the design adheres to stringent ecological criteria emphasizing energy performance, material durability, and biodiversity. Passive strategies such as optimal orientation, cross-ventilation, and extensive greenery reduce thermal loads and enhance comfort. The integration of natural light and vegetation supports both environmental goals and the well-being of residents, reinforcing the link between sustainability and habitability.
For Taillandier Architectes Associés, Home Spirit reflects a long-standing commitment to architecture as a disciplined yet empathetic practice. The firm’s philosophy emphasizes clarity of design, sensitivity to context, and dedication to quality of life. This project embodies those values, balancing technical rigor with sensory experience. It expresses the idea that architecture, when thoughtfully conceived, can transform density into opportunity and elevate collective housing into a domain of generosity and harmony.
Ultimately, Home Spirit represents more than a residential development; it is a statement about the evolving nature of urban living. By merging landscape, community, and environmental stewardship, the project establishes a model for future housing in Toulouse. It stands as evidence that architecture can remain both grounded and aspirational—rooted in context while reaching toward a more sustainable and connected urban future.
Project Gallery
Project Location
Address: Rue Jean Rodier, Montaudran District, Toulouse
The location specified is intended for general reference and may denote a city or country, but it does not identify a precise address.
