Nicolas Laisné Architectes completes ship-inspired Vatea apartment block in Huningue

Nicolas Laisné Architectes has finished Vatea, a nine-storey residential building in Huningue, France, designed with a slender, streamlined form that evokes a ship anchored along the Rhine riverbank. The structure offers 20 apartments for students and young professionals, blending individual studios with co-living units. Its wedge-shaped plan tapers northward into a curved prow containing a spiral staircase and stacked terraces. A central mid-level terrace wraps the western facade, functioning as a communal deck with panoramic river views and housing a double-height shared living and dining room alongside fitness and cinema spaces. The building employs a concrete column-and-beam framework clad in white corrugated metal and vertical steel elements to enhance its lightweight, nautical aesthetic. Founder Nicolas Laisné described the project as a co-living hub for an international population at the tri-border junction of France, Germany, and Switzerland. The studio, based in Paris and founded in 2005, previously collaborated with Sou Fujimoto on a tree-like tower in Montpellier and with Dimitri Roussel on an office building in Nice. Photography for the project was handled by Cyrille Weiner.